WARNING: What This Babysitter Did Will Stay With You | True Crime Documentary

“You remember at all talking to… about that you felt that you being possessed by devil? Devil was taking control of your body?”

“No.”

“No.”

Police are investigating a horrific double murder in a wealthy New York City neighborhood, and as Terrell Brown reports, the victims are two small children.

“Unbelievable, just unbelievable. I can’t imagine what the mother’s feeling.”

Today’s case takes us to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York, to a 10-story apartment block on West 75th Street, just a block away from Central Park. October 25th, 2012, a woman named Charlotte was in the building’s elevator with two children who also lived there and the children’s nanny.

“I told the little girl, ‘Do you know how beautiful you are?’”

And she gave me the biggest smile I’ve ever seen and said, “Thank you.”

Nothing appeared to be off or out of sorts with the nanny or the children. Less than an hour later, at around 5:30, Charlotte was back in the elevator when she heard what she called a primal scream from somewhere in the building. It was pure terror. She said it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. As she came out of the elevator, she saw a woman standing on the mezzanine screaming. Other neighbors heard it and came to see what was going on.

Marina Krim had taken her three-year-old daughter, Inez, known as Nessie, to a swimming lesson. Her other children, six-year-old Lucia, known affectionately as Lulu, and 2-year-old Leo, had stayed behind with their nanny, 50-year-old Yoselyn Ortega. Marina had made a plan to meet Yoselyn later that day, but there was no sign of her or the children. Marina grew more and more concerned by their absence. Her text messages were met with no response.

“Where are you? Where’s Lulu?”

She messaged. She headed home with Nessie to see if anything was wrong. Going up to the apartment and opening the door, it was eerily quiet and all of the lights had been turned off. She went back downstairs to talk to the doorman, asking if they’d left already. He said they hadn’t. She went back upstairs and into the apartment to search for them. She saw her daughter’s bag and her son’s stroller in their usual places. Clutching her daughter’s hand, she went from room to room. She got to the bathroom and saw a crack of light coming from under the door. Lying in the tub were the bodies of Leo and Lucia. Lucia had been stabbed 30 times and Leo five times. She saw Yoselyn in the pair locked eyes. Yoselyn then picked up a large knife and began to stab herself.

Remma Starr lived on the same floor as the Krims and heard the commotion.

“There was some kind of screaming about ‘you slit her throat’…”

She said it was horrible. The doorman, Glenn Ludy, immediately rang 911, and the screams of anguish could be heard in the background. The police were soon at the apartment building, and when they entered the lobby, they found Marina Krim screaming and crying, clutching onto Nessie. A neighbor described her as inconsolable, hysterical, frantic. The scene that awaited the first responders was beyond anybody’s worst nightmare. Blood was all over the floor and walls of the bathroom. Two bloodied knives were found, one in the hallway and one in the bathroom sink. It was a scene of total carnage. As emergency workers continued to flood into the building, Marina’s husband, Kevin, was arriving home from a business trip. He worked as a senior vice president for CNBC Digital and was heading back to John F. Kennedy International Airport when he arrived. He was met by two officers in plain clothes. He listened to a voicemail that Marina had left him, and all he heard was screaming. They then told him what had happened.

37-year-old Kevin Krim and his 36-year-old wife Marina shared three children. They were originally from California but later made the move from San Francisco to New York. Marina had worked as a kindergarten teacher after receiving an undergraduate degree in fine arts and then a master’s in education. After becoming a mother, she would leave the profession to spend more time with her children. They then went on to hire a nanny for some extra help, 50-year-old Yoselyn Ortega, who had been with the family for 2 years. Yoselyn was immediately arrested and taken out of the building on a stretcher. She was in critical condition. She was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital to be treated for her self-inflicted injuries.

“In other news tonight, there is a growing memorial outside an Upper West Side apartment building where a nanny is accused of killing two children.”

As news began to spread about what had happened, so many were in a state of absolute shock, and a memorial soon began to form outside the building. Marina and Nessie were escorted from the building by police covered in a white sheet to shield them from the photographers. Marina was taken to hospital to receive treatment for trauma. Leo and Lucia were transported to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, but tragically both would be pronounced dead. This was now a double murder inquiry. What on earth had happened and why?

“They came to the Upper West Side today and stared silently, hopelessly trying to make some sense of all the horror and pain here. But how in the world do you make sense out of this?”

As the children’s nanny, Yoselyn, affectionately called Josie by the children, was treated as a member of the family. She was born in Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic and later moved to the USA and became a naturalized citizen. She lived in Manhattan with her sister, niece, and son. Yoselyn’s sister had connected her with the family. She too was a nanny, and her employer’s child went to the same preschool as Lucia. She went up to Marina during a ballet class and asked if she had a nanny. Marina told her she didn’t. The Krims had only recently moved to New York and they were considering hiring someone to help. They asked a reference about Yoselyn and it all appeared great. It would later be reported that a relative had provided Yoselyn with a false reference, claiming she had been a nanny for a child that didn’t exist. Marina kept a blog which detailed the ins and outs of life in the Krim family, life with the little Krim kids, shared what the children got up to, and all things family life. It was clear that Yoselyn was very much a part of the family. In February 2012, just a few months before the killings, the Krim family traveled to the Dominican Republic for 9 days and stayed with Yoselyn’s sister for a portion.

“We spent the past 9 days in the Dominican Republic,” Marina wrote on February 18th. “We spent half our time at our nanny Josie’s sister’s home in Santiago and the rest at Banesco Atlantico in Laserenas, a condo-style hotel where the Real Housewives of Dominican Republic and their families hang on weekends. It was wonderful. We met Josie’s amazing familia, and the Dominican Republic is a wonderful country.”

Marina and Kevin were utterly devoted and dedicated parents, and more blog posts revealed just how much they adored their children. On September 30th, Marina posted a photograph of their son after his second birthday.

“One of the best parts of my day is after I drop both girls off at school and have three precious hours with little Leo.”

“After she was found guilty, Kevin wrote on Facebook that he had hugged as many members of the jury as he could, saying that the jurors had been through hell having to sit through that trial. This process has been very challenging for us, but it has also reaffirmed our love of New York, a city that Lulu and Leo loved dearly. It was now time for Yoselyn to be sentenced.”

“Worried.”

“Your honor, this defendant murdered two innocent children. She did it intentionally. She did it with a full knowledge of the consequences of her actions. Now is the time for justice. Justice for Lulu, justice for Leo, justice for Marina and Kevin and Nessie, justice for the people of the state of New York, justice for all of the people who are part of the Krim’s life who love the Krim family, love their children, and it’s time for justice.”

“We need to mete out the horrific acts of violence that this defendant inflicted upon those children and upon the parents and family. Nobody saw signs of a serious mental illness because there was no serious mental illness.”

That’s what the jury found in rejecting her defense, and that’s the way that she should be sentenced at the sentencing hearing. Kevin called Yoselyn an evil and utterly dangerous narcissist and a complete failure when speaking to the judge. He said:

“I trust that you do not need this request from Lulu and Leo’s dad, after all you’ve heard and seen, but I will make it anyway. In your sentencing decision, please follow the law as you always have by ensuring that the defendant can never leave prison alive. The defendant knows nothing of responsibility or remorse. She should also know nothing of hope.”

“In my best moments, I feel Lulu and Leo inspiring me and carrying me forward. In my most difficult moments, I try to ask myself what Lulu and Leo would choose to do. It’s the best beacon of hope, the best guidance that we could ever hope to have. Thank you. Amen.”

Marina also spoke at the sentencing hearing.

“My family and I…”

Using a translator and speaking in Spanish, Yoselyn told the court her lawyer asked the judge for mercy and that she be put in protective custody with access to mental health professionals and doctors.

“I understand that my client has taken the lives of two precious children. I am praying that you do not take her life away without the prospect of parole.”

The judge disagreed. Judge Gregory Carro described what she had done as pure evil and praised the jury for rejecting the defense of insanity.

“Your planning and forethought regarding your suicide plan on that day was certainly unmistakable. What’s unclear—and it’s unclear mainly because you claim to have a lack of memory—is why you decided to take the lives of the children.”

Just moments ago, the sentence came down and Yoselyn Ortega will spend the rest of her life behind bars. Yoselyn Ortega was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. The parents are channeling their pain into a new initiative named for their children, advocating for legislation that makes falsifying references on job applications for caregivers a crime in order to try and limit the chances of something like this ever happening again. The family announced their support for legislation that would make it a criminal offense for someone to submit an application relating to child care that included false references and credentials.

“We were deceived and betrayed by the defendant’s family, who remained wholly unaccountable for their roles in the murders of our children. Every child deserves a caregiver who was honest and responsible, and no one should think they can lie when it comes to the care and safety of our children.”