Up date on “They are angels now,” ....Motive Sought in N.Y. Child Killings.. JR Updates

What can justice now accept from her as an excuse. She was tired and bad paid. Can a person kill 2 kids because she felt under paid. Its Bipolar Society where we all live ..  JR

Motive Sought in N.Y. Child Killings

By TAMER EL-GHOBASHY and SEAN GARDINER

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Pearl Gabel for the Wall Street

Margaret Miller, a nanny working in the area, at a memorial Friday for the two children allegedly murdered by their nanny inside their Upper West Side apartment.

NEW YORK—Police were searching Friday for a motive behind a Manhattan nanny's alleged murder of two young children in her care, a case that has gripped the city and moved strangers to openly grieve for the family at the center of the crime.

Yoselyn Ortega, 50 years old, left no note before apparently trying to commit suicide Thursday night near the bodies of 2-year-old Leo Krim and his 6-year-old sister, Lucia, who had been fatally stabbed, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. She was in the hospital and unable to speak, though she is expected to survive what appeared to be self-inflicted slash wounds, Mr. Kelly said.

Ms. Ortega hasn't been formally accused in the deaths, although she is expected to be charged, police said.

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Krim Family via LiveJournal

Lucia Krim, 6 years old, who was killed Thursday night with her 2-year-old brother Leo, right, in photos posted on their mother's LiveJournal blog.

A naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic, Ms. Ortega worked for media executive Kevin Krim and his wife, Marina, for just over two years after she was referred by another family who had employed her, Mr. Kelly said. There was no indication of trouble, Mr. Kelly said.A Manhattan nanny was taken into custody Thursday night after she was discovered near the bodies of two of her young charges, who had been fatally stabbed in their apartment in a luxury building on the Upper West Side, police said. Carrie Melago has details on Lunch Break.

Friends and acquaintances described Ms. Ortega as a devout Catholic who rarely complained but had recently shown signs of stress, in part through weight loss.

Mr. Kelly said Ms. Ortega had no known criminal history or history of psychiatric problems, but that detectives were investigating reports she had recently sought the help of a psychologist.

Relatives of Ms. Ortega—who Mr. Kelly said has a son and lives with her sister—didn't respond to inquiries at their home and spent much of Thursday night and Friday with detectives.

On Friday, the entrance of the Krims's luxury Upper West Side building became a memorial where parents and nannies alike stopped to express condolences and grief. They left behind bouquets, stuffed animals and votive candles in memory of two children most of them didn't know. "It brought tears to my eyes," said Margaret Miller, a 45-year-old caretaker.

Mr. Kelly said Marina Krim, 36 years old, returned home at about 5:30 p.m. Thursday from taking her 3-year-old daughter to a swimming lesson and found the apartment dark and quiet. After checking with the doorman to see if the children had left the building, Ms. Krim found them lying in the bathtub. They each had been stabbed several times, Mr. Kelly said.

Ms. Ortega was also inside the bathroom, and "we believe now that the nanny began stabbing herself as…the mother entered the bathroom," Mr. Kelly said. He said that the nanny used a kitchen knife to slash at her own neck and wrists.

Ms. Krim's screams were so audible, a second-floor neighbor called 911 reporting a woman in distress, police said. By the time officers arrived, Ms. Ortega was unconscious. The children were declared dead at a local hospital.

The children's father, a 37-year-old executive with financial-news network CNBC in New York, had been traveling and was met by detectives at the airport late Thursday.

William Krim, Mr. Krim's father, said he had never "heard a complaint" about Ms. Ortega from his son and his wife, a stay-at-home mother. He recalled that the Krims had spent time with Ms. Ortega and her family in the Dominican Republic in February.

At her apartment building in upper Manhattan, Ms. Ortega was known for attending Mass regularly. She brought the children round on occasion and spoke warmly of her employers, neighbors said. "She looked like a mom," said Ruben Rivas, 49, a neighbor.

Mr. Rivas and others said Ms. Ortega had begun to lose a bit of her energy recently and appeared "thin, tired and nervous."

William Krim said his son could do little more than send text messages to him after learning of his children's fate.

"He said he couldn't talk to us because he felt that he'd fall apart and that he had to put all his effort into his remaining child and his wife," he said in a phone interview.

—Pervaiz Shallwani and Danny Gold contributed to this article.