Lucia and Leo Krim, aged 6 and 2 respectively, were murdered in the late afternoon of October 25, 2012, at the La Rochelle apartment building on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in New York City. The children's part-time caretaker, Yoselyn Ortega, was convicted of stabbing the children to death with kitchen knives while their mother Marina Krim and three-year-old sister Nessie were a few blocks away at a swimming lesson. Upon returning home, their mother and sister found Lucia and Leo dead in a bathtub at the family apartment. Ortega then began stabbing herself repeatedly in the neck and throat. She survived the self-inflicted wounds. On February 22, 2018, twelve jurors were chosen for Ortega's trial, and

opening statements An opening statement is generally the first occasion that the trier of fact (jury or judge) has to hear from a lawyer in a trial, aside possibly from questioning during voir dire. The opening statement is generally constructed to serve as a "roa ...

began March 1 in

Manhattan Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

. On April 18, 2018, Ortega was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree murder. Ortega was sentenced on May 14, 2018, to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

without the possibility of

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

Background

The children lived with their parents, Marina and Kevin Krim, in New York City. Lucia was known as "Lulu.""Police: Nanny stabbed herself upon mother's arrival,"
CNN. The family moved there from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 2010."The Krim Children Stabbings: Read PEOPLE's Original 2012 Story,"
''PEOPLE''. Kevin Krim was a digital content executive at the television network

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

. Marina Krim, a former kindergarten teacher, was a stay-at-home mother, art teacher, and blogger who chronicled the children's lives."Distraught Dad of Children Allegedly Slain by Nanny Tries To 'Be Strong'",
DNAinfo."Deranged nanny kills 2 kids: NYPD"
nydailynews.com; accessed May 17, 2018.

Discovery of killings

On October 25, 2012, at about 5:35 pm, Marina Krim returned with her 3-year-old daughter, Nessie, from the girl's swimming lesson at a nearby

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

to her apartment in a 10-story doorman building at 57 West 75th Street and Columbus Avenue on the

. The 36-year-old mother returned to the apartment earlier than scheduled because Ortega had failed to show up at Lulu's ballet lesson where they had agreed to meet. She entered the apartment but, as it was dark and quiet, found no one. After returning to the lobby and consulting with the doorman, who had seen Ortega and the children return to the apartment shortly before, Marina and her daughter Nessie returned to the family apartment. In the bathroom, she discovered her motionless two-year-old son, Leo Krim, and six-year-old daughter, Lucia "Lulu" Krim. They were clothed; each had multiple stab wounds and were in a bathtub, filled with blood. After seeing Marina Krim discover what had happened to her children, Yoselyn "Josie" Ortega, their caregiver of two years who was on the floor next to the bathtub, slashed her own wrists and began to violently stab herself in the neck and throat with a kitchen knife. This scene was also witnessed by the apartment building's superintendent and his 10-year-old son. The bodies of the two children were removed from the building on a single stretcher. Kevin Krim, 37 years old at the time, learned of the events that night from police at

John F. Kennedy Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

upon returning from a business trip to San Francisco. Ortega told police investigators Lucia, who suffered

defensive wound A defense wound or self-defense wound is an injury received by the victim of an attack while trying to defend against the assailant. Defensive wounds are often found on the hands and forearms, where the victim has raised them to protect the head an ...

s, had fought back when she was attacked."New York nanny accused of stabbing kids to death faces life sentence as trial begins"
Fox News; accessed May 17, 2018. She said 2-year-old Leo was sleeping when the attack started.

Nanny

Ortega, a

naturalized US citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

for 10 years at the time, was originally from

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, and was 50 years old at the time she murdered the Krim children. She was living on Riverside Drive in Manhattan's

Hamilton Heights Hamilton Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is the northernmost part of the West Harlem area, along with Manhattanville and Morningside Heights to its south, and it contains the sub-neighborhood an ...

neighborhood with her 17-year-old son Jesus, her sister, and her niece. She was paid $18 an hour as a babysitter. In interviews with the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

(NYPD), Ortega claimed she was upset that her employer, Marina Krim, responded to her inquiry about needing more hours (due to money troubles) by suggesting she could do housework. The NYPD and friends of the nanny said she indicated that she was upset because the Krims would not pay her more money. However, family and friends who knew the Krims, as well as Ortega's own family, said that Ortega was close to the children and was treated very well by the Krims. The Krims paid for her plane tickets to see her family in the Dominican Republic and, on one occasion, accompanied her on vacation there. Ortega survived her self-inflicted wounds, and was later deemed by two New York State psychiatrists

mentally competent In United States and Canadian law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Comp ...

to stand trial. She was incarcerated at a New York City

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

without

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

while she prepared for her trial with a private attorney contracted by NY State to serve as Ortega's

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

Trial

In November 2012, Ortega was

indict An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

ed on two counts of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

."Crime: A Question Hangs Over a Trial: Why Did a Nanny Kill 2 Children in Her Care?",
''The New York Times''. Over the next five years, prior to trial, Ortega made approximately 90 court appearances. In April 2016, Judge Gregory Carro made a

plea In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...

offer to Ortega over the objection of the prosecution (who said the only appropriate sentence would be life without

) of 30-years-to-life-in-prison, the minimum sentence for the two murder counts, in exchange for her guilty pleas. Ortega rejected the offer. On February 22, 2018, 12 jurors were chosen for Ortega's trial as Judge Carro presided, and

were scheduled for March 1 in

. The trial was expected to last four months, but ended after less than two. Ortega faced the possibility of

."12 jurors chosen in trial of NYC nanny charged with killing kids,"
''NY Daily News''. She pleaded not guilty to

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

, and pursued a "psychiatric defense". Her lawyers argued that Ortega was

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

and should therefore not be held responsible for her acts, while the prosecutors argued that she was sound-minded and was in fact responsible. Ortega was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree murder on April 18, 2018. On May 14, 2018, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In his ruling, Judge Carro said Ortega was "pure evil", blaming Ortega and her family for not seeking medical treatment for Ortega's depression and anxiety, and for hiding her condition from the Krims.

Lulu & Leo Fund

The Krims subsequently set up the Lulu & Leo Fund, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

charity that provides

creative education Creative education is when students are able to use imagination and critical thinking to create new and meaningful forms of ideas where they can take risks, be independent and flexible. Instead of being taught to reiterate what was learned, stud ...

programs for disadvantaged children, under an initiative called Choose Creativity. The Krim family posts photos and memories of their children on the Lulu & Leo Fund public Facebook page, including fundraising events and photos of art made by their children. In 2014, the Fund served 2,300 children. Since the killing of their two children, the Krims had two more children, Felix and Linus, who made cameos in a video related to the fund.

Lulu & Leo's Law

The

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

and

State Senate A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...

passed Lulu & Leo’s Law in June 2018;

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

Governor

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...

signed it into law in August 2018. It is the first of its kind in the country, making it a crime to knowingly and materially misrepresent the qualifications of a person applying for work as a child caregiver. Kevin Krim said in the bill signing announcement, "We hired the woman who murdered our children based on a deliberate set of lies. Thanks to Governor Cuomo's support and the hard work of sponsors Assemblyman Otis, Senator Lanza and their co-sponsor, there is now a strong deterrent to that kind of deception.”

In popular culture

French-Moroccan writer

Leïla Slimani Leïla Slimani (born 3 October 1981) is a Franco-Moroccan writer and journalist. She is also a French diplomat in her capacity as the personal representative of the French president Emmanuel Macron to the ''Organisation internationale de la Fran ...

wrote a novel inspired by the killing of the Krim children. The original French title was ''Chanson Douce''; in the UK the title was ''

Lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowled ...

'', and in the USA ''The Perfect Nanny''. "Leïla Slimani's 'The Perfect Nanny' Is an Eerie Novel of Manners,"
''The Atlantic''.">"The Killer-Nanny Novel That Conquered France,"
''The New Yorker''. It was well received in France, where it won the prestigious

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

in 2016, but it did not achieve similar success in the US.

References

External links

Lulu + Leo Fund website

Choose Creativity website

Lulu + Leo Fund Facebook

Leo + Leo Fund: Choose Creativity on Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krim, Lucia and Leo 2010s in Manhattan 2012 crimes in New York (state) 2012 in New York City 2012 murders in the United States Crimes in Manhattan Deaths by person in New York City Murder in New York City Nannies October 2012 events in the United States Upper West Side Violence against children October 2012 crimes Deaths by stabbing in New York (state)