NYC nanny not herself before killings
Miladys Ortega shows a photograph of her sister, Yoselyn Ortega, front center, taken some time between 1985 and 1990, at her home in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012. / AP Photo/Manuel Morel
NEW YORK Friends and relatives of Yoselyn Ortega, the New York City nanny accused of stabbing two young children to death, said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially recently. Few, though, could offer any explanation for what might have caused her to attack the children.
"She snapped," the nanny's sister, Celia Ortega, told The New York Post. "We don't understand what happened to her mind."
Ortega, 50, remained hospitalized Saturday from self-inflicted stab wounds, including a deep gash to her throat.
Police said the Manhattan mother who employed Ortega returned to her Upper West Side apartment Thursday to find two of her children, ages 2 and 6, dead of knife wounds and the nanny stabbing herself with the blade.
Yoselyn Ortega's motive remains a mystery, even to those who knew her, but a picture of a life in distress has begun to emerge in the days since the killing.
"Apparently over the last month she was not herself," said police department spokesman Paul Browne.
Juan Pozo, a 67-year-old car service driver who formerly rented a room from the Ortega family, told The New York Times that the nanny's sister told him Friday that she had "felt like she was losing her mind" lately, and had recently been taken by relatives to visit a psychologist.
Police said they were unaware of any significant history of psychological problems for Ortega, but were investigating whether she had recently sought treatment.
Neighbor Ruben Rivas told reporters she seemed to have suddenly aged in recent weeks and had lost weight. Other friends said that while she was paid well by her domestic employers, Kevin and Marina Krim, and seemed happy with her job, she had suffered a financial setback when she had to give up an apartment she had rented in the Bronx, and recently moved back in with her sister.
William Krim, grandfather to the slain children, told the Times he wasn't aware of any conflicts between the family and the nanny.
"We're just the most stunned people in the world. I mean, they treated this woman so well," he said.
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I don't know if the nanny was here legally but the earlier article said "home in the Dominican Republic", that does not sound like a US citizen to me.
My sister and her husband lived for 8 years in AZ and she said -everyone- used Mexican nannies and paid them under the table.
This year we've seen the most horrendous murders, very bizarre, way beyond any reasonable explanation. Do drugs or prescription meds account for some of this?
Ultimately it may not be possible to ever understand what happened with the nanny. And would "understanding" it make any difference for the poor family who lost their children? It's an awful, terrible tragedy.
I wish to whatever power there is, that I could take away the pain this family will go through for the rest of their lives.
Does this give me the right to kill someone, let alone two small children? Not in my world. Herself or not, in my opinion this woman needs to go to a Fed Pen, general populance, for the rest of her life.
Universal access to health care, psychological as well as physical, is really Enlightened Self-Interest.