Marina Krim returned to her Upper West Side apartment on October 25th to find her longtime nanny stabbing herself in the bathroom while two of her children lay dead in the bathtub. Krim left her 2-year-old son, Leo, and 6-year-old daughter, Lucia, also known as Lulu, with Yoselyn Ortega, the 50-year-old nanny who had worked for the Krim family for many years (Barron).
Krim left Ortega in charge of her two children while she took her middle child, 3-year-old Nessie, to a swimming lesson. Afterwards, Krim and Ortega planned to meet up at a dance studio, but when Ortega and the children didn't show, she returned home to find a dark apartment. She returned to the lobby to ask the doorman if he had seen the nanny and children, but he reported that they had not left the building. She went back upstairs, turned on the lights in the bathroom, and found Ortega and her deceased children, according to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly (Barron).
Ortega stabbed herself after Krim entered the bathroom. "The nanny began to stab herself as the woman entered the room - entered the bathroom, said Kelly in a statement. "She did it as the mother entered the bathroom" (Quijano).
Neighbor, Rima Starr, said she heard terrible screams coming from the apartment. "Just these unbelievable blood curdling screams," Starr said. "No words. Just primal, from the bottom of the gut, horrible screams" (Quijano). .
Since the incident, Ortega has been kept in a medically induced coma, so the police have not been able to question her and learn her motives. However, friends of Ortega have speculated that she had a rough year, spurred by financial troubles and the loss of her Bronx apartment. Maria Lajara, a friend of Ortega's who lived two floors below in the same apartment building, said that Ortega stopped by in the spring to ask her to pray that she would find a new apartment to live in with her teenage son.
