Manhattan, NY – CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim was told by law enforcement officials that his two children had been stabbed to death by the family’s nanny.
Krim’s wife, Marina Krim, came home to find the couple’s 6-year-old daughter Lucia and 1-year-old son Leo dead in the bathtub of their luxury apartment near Central Park in New York yesterday, reports the International Business Times . The Krim family’s nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, was found with self-inflicted stab wounds.
The 50-year-old nanny was found near the bathtub with knife wounds to her neck and a kitchen knife close by, said police. She has been taken to the hospital, is in critical condition, and is also under police custody.
The Krim’s children were pronounced dead at the hospital. Kevin Krim was away on a business trip and was met by police at the airport. They escorted him to the hospital.
Rima Starr, one of the Krim’s neighbors, said that she heard screams coming from the apartment early in the evening. “There was some kind of screaming about, ‘You slit her throat!’ It was horrible,” she said.
Starr also said that she believes the family nanny had been hired recently and that she had spoken with her the day before the murders. “I met her in the elevator, the day before yesterday, and was making small talk.”
Mrs. Krim was returning from a swimming lesson with 3-year-old daughter Nessie when she discovered her other two children and the nanny. Police found her in hysterics, hugging the surviving Nessie tightly.
Jill Pace, another neighbor, said: “It’s awful. It makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t even look at the building. You have to wonder what goes through someone’s mind to do such a horrible thing.”
According to the NY Post , Mrs. Krim kept an intimate and loving blog chronicling her children’s lives and had updated it before the murders:
“Leo speaks in the most adorable way possible. Firstly, he speaks super clearly, so you can understand every word is he is saying. And he does things like, ‘(I) want a fresh bagel’ and ‘Dito (what he calls himself) wants cold milk’ and most adorable of all, ‘No thank you’ – he never uses ‘No’ alone, it’s always paired with ‘thank you’.”
Police do not know why the nanny stabbed the children and then herself. Ortega’s family and friends insisted that she was a caring nanny. “This is just shocking,” said Ortega’s niece, Katherine Garcia. “She loved those kids. I don’t know what would make her do this.”
The superintendent of the building where Ortega lives said that the nanny is “a very nice woman” and “very religious,” continuing, “To me, she has always been very, very stable.”
The Krim family had apparently taken great care in their selection of Ortega as a nanny. “Kevin told me that she was a nice girl,” the grandmother said, sobbing. “How could she do something like that? The children were angels.”
The police investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed yet. IQ sends condolences to Kevin Krim and wife Marina in this tragic and incredibly trying time.