Upper West Side Nanny Suspected In Stabbing Deaths Of 2 Children Remains Hospitalized

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A nanny was in critical condition Friday after police said she fatally stabbed two children she was caring for before turning the knife on herself.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Yoselyn Ortega, 50, had cuts to her wrists and neck and was in a medically induced coma at an area hospital.

"She's a naturalized citizen. She has been employed by the family for approximately two years. She was referred to them by another family," Kelly said of Ortega.

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Marina Krim returned home Thursday to her luxury apartment building at 75th and Columbus Avenue to find her 2-year-old son, Leo, and 6-year-old daughter, Lucia, in a bathtub. Each had been stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife, police said.

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"Her [Krim's] screams were heard by a neighbor, who alerted police, who arrived and found the children dead," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.

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Just when it seemed the details of the brutal murders could not possibly get worse, Kelly said Ortega was not unconscious, as was first thought, when the mother of the slain children arrived home to the horrific scene.

"We believe now that the nanny began to stab herself as the woman entered the room, entered the bathroom," Kelly said, noting that that information came directly from the mother.

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Marina Krim remains hospitalized for trauma. Her surviving child, 3-year-old Nessie, who reportedly did not see her siblings' bodies, was also taken to the hospital.

"It's unbelievable, unbelievable. I can't imagine what the mother is feeling," neighbor Charles Zimmerman said.

"Everything is just  ... I don't know what to say!  I know what this mother is going through right now, I'm a mother, too. I have two kids. God!" nanny Christine Angelo told CBS 2's Tony Aiello.

Krim's husband, Kevin Krim, who is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of CNBC Digital, had just returned from a business trip and was reportedly told the devastating news at the airport.

Comcast and NBCUniversal issued a statement calling the deaths of a the two young children "an unimaginable loss."

"The sadness that we all feel for Kevin, Marina and their family is without measure," the statement said. "Our thoughts, prayers and unwavering support are with them all."

Marina Krim kept a loving blog about her children on livejournal.com called "Life With The Little Krim Kids." It was filled with thousands of posts and pictures.

She last posted at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, just three hours before she discovered the bodies.

She wrote:

Leo speaks in the most adorable way possible. Firstly, he speaks super clearly, so you can understand every word is 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".

In February, Krim wrote on her blog about visiting their nanny's family in the Dominican Republic.

"We met Josie's amazing familia!!! And the Dominican Republic is a wonderful country!!" she wrote.

It's not still clear if the woman she refers to in the post as Josie is the same nanny found wounded Thursday.

Police said there's "anecdotal evidence" Ortega had recently sought help with her mental health, CBS 2's Aiello reported.

"She was skinny, her face kind of devastated.  That's how I saw her," one neighbor said.

"You never know nothing about people, people change in a second. She was a nice lady, everybody knows her in the building," Ortega's neighbor, Freddie, told CBS 2's Weijia Jiang.

So far, no charges have been filed.

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