MIDTOWN — The nanny who allegedly stabbed two small children to death before slashing her own throat was charged with murder Saturday from her hospital bed in New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, police said.
Yoselyn Ortega, 50, has been hospitalized since the horrific Upper West Side stabbing on October 25th.
Ortega allegedly stabbed 2-year-old Leo Krim and 6-year-old Lucia Krim, known as Lulu, in the bathtub of the family's West 75th Street apartment last Oct. 25 at about 5:30 p.m. The children's mother, Marina Krim, discovered the devastating crime as she returned home with her third child, 3-year-old Nessie.
Ortega, charged with two counts each of murder in the first and second degrees, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition after slashing her own throat when Krim found her children lying in their own blood.
Detectives had been unable to question Ortega after she awoke from an induced coma because she remained in a catatonic state, sources said.
Police said Ortega, no longer intubated, agreed this afternoon to speak with detectives in a bedside interview about the crime and was formally arrested at about 6 p.m.
Ortega remains under police guard in the hospital.
It's unclear when Ortega will be arraigned. The District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sources say Marina Krim is "devastated" by the loss of her two children. Ortega had worked for the Krims for two and a half years, and the Krims had even visited Ortega's family in the Dominican Republic, according to an online diary Marina Krim kept.
