Last weekend, Yoselyn Ortega was formally charged with first- and second-degree murder for allegedly killing 6-year-old Lucia Krim and 2-year-old Leo Krim, the children she cared for on the Upper West Side. Ortega is accused of fatally stabbing the children on October 25th in their apartment on West 75th Street; it now turns out the building's super wasn't the only one who went to the apartment after hearing the screams of the childrens' mother, Marina Krim. When the super and his 10-year-old son got there, they allegedly witnessed Ortega attempting to slit her throat.
Lucia and Leo died at the hospital, while Ortega survived her injuries, though she had remained intubated until this past Saturday. While police are still trying to put together a definite motive for the killing, more details have come out about the financial difficulties that may have led to the horrific incident. According to DNAInfo, investigators now believe that Ortega's decision to move her 17-year-old son Jesus from the Dominican Republic here eight months ago may have precipitated "her descent into madness."
Ortega was paid $18 an hour, about average for a nanny, which comes out to less than $32,000 a year. Jesus came to live with her in her Bronx apartment, and was enrolled in a private school; Ortega's brother agreed to pay for the initial year’s tuition, but said Ortega would be responsible for the ensuing tuition bills. Then over the summer, Ortega was kicked out of her apartment by the owners she was renting, and she and her son were forced to move in with a sister on Riverside Drive in Hamilton Heights. “She had to move back with her family, and now had her son with her,” a source told DNAInfo. “Maybe it was too crowded. She had no place of her own. There was his schooling and travel.”
Ortega tried selling cosmetics on the side, then went to the Krims with her money troubles, who offered her an additional five hours a week doing some cleaning. “We think she did not appreciate doing light cleaning,” the source added. “That was not her job.” She previously was said to have had been frustrated over her wages in general.
The NY Times reports that when asked for a motive, Ortega told detectives from her hospital bed that "Marina knows what happened." Their sources say Ortega resented the family: "while the Krim family did not have problems with Ms. Ortega and seemed to live an idyllic life, Ms. Ortega, based on what she told the investigators, had a different view," explaining, "She had resentment towards the parents... they were always telling her what to do."
