NYC parents worried as nanny kills two kids
Source: Agencies |
October 28, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE nightmarish case of a nanny accused of stabbing to death two children in her care stunned the family's well-to-do New York City neighborhood and caused legions of parents to wonder how well they know who is watching their kids.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, lay in critical condition on Friday with what police said were self-inflicted knife wounds, and investigators were unable to question her, in part because she was still breathing with the help of a tube.
Her motive and mental state remained a mystery, and no immediate charges were filed.
On Thursday evening, the children's mother, Marina Kim, brought her three-year-old daughter home from a swim lesson to find her other youngsters, aged two and six, dying of knife wounds in the bathtub of their Upper West Side apartment near Central Park. Ortega then turned the blade on herself, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the investigation has yet to reveal anything amiss in the household before the slayings.
Police were looking into whether Ortega, a 50-year-old naturalized US citizen who had worked for the family for two years, had recently sought psychiatric help.
There are tens of thousands of nannies working in New York City, but reports of serious violence by caregivers against children are exceedingly rare. Parents are accused of killing their own children with far more frequency.
More common are stories about nannies like Brunilda Tirado, who threw her body over a stroller to protect a baby from falling debris during a building collapse in the same Manhattan neighborhood in 2005. She suffered a broken arm and other injuries.
The slayings will undoubtedly prompt many parents hiring a nanny to check references more thoroughly, and swallow hard over the possibility that they might unknowingly hire a person who would do their child harm.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, lay in critical condition on Friday with what police said were self-inflicted knife wounds, and investigators were unable to question her, in part because she was still breathing with the help of a tube.
Her motive and mental state remained a mystery, and no immediate charges were filed.
On Thursday evening, the children's mother, Marina Kim, brought her three-year-old daughter home from a swim lesson to find her other youngsters, aged two and six, dying of knife wounds in the bathtub of their Upper West Side apartment near Central Park. Ortega then turned the blade on herself, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the investigation has yet to reveal anything amiss in the household before the slayings.
Police were looking into whether Ortega, a 50-year-old naturalized US citizen who had worked for the family for two years, had recently sought psychiatric help.
There are tens of thousands of nannies working in New York City, but reports of serious violence by caregivers against children are exceedingly rare. Parents are accused of killing their own children with far more frequency.
More common are stories about nannies like Brunilda Tirado, who threw her body over a stroller to protect a baby from falling debris during a building collapse in the same Manhattan neighborhood in 2005. She suffered a broken arm and other injuries.
The slayings will undoubtedly prompt many parents hiring a nanny to check references more thoroughly, and swallow hard over the possibility that they might unknowingly hire a person who would do their child harm.
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