Krims treated accused child-killer nanny Yoselyn Ortega 'like family,' says slain tots' grandmother

Karen Krim, the mother of CNBC executive Kevin Krim, says family would even buy nanny tickets home when they took the kids out of town.

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A woman mourns outside the Krims' apartment, where flowers have been left at a memorial.

They treated their nanny like gold.

The grandmother of the two children allegedly slaughtered by their baby-sitter says the family “bent over backwards” for their caretaker — even paying for her trips back to her native Dominican Republic.

 

“They just bent over backwards being nice to this woman,” Karen Krim, the mother of CNBC executive Kevin Krim, told the Daily News Friday.

 

“They were always doing things that were just fabulous for her. I’m just astounded, and I have no idea why something like this would happen.”

 

RELATED: DERANGED NANNY ALLEGEDLY KILLS TWO CHILDREN OF CNBC MEDIA EXECUTIVE KEVIN KRIM IN UPPER WEST SIDE

 

MARCUS SANTOS FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Outside the Krims' apartment, people have begun to leave flowers. “We’re just having a really, really hard time here,” the dead children's grandmother Karen Krim says. “We’re all falling apart ... It’s the worst nightmare any parent could ever have.”

Karen Krim said the nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, had always been an angel — at least on the outside.

“They treated her like family,” she said.

 

“My daughter-in-law, if she thought there was anything wrong, she would have never left the two with her. This had to be something simmering inside this woman. Obviously, she went insane.”

 

Nanny Yoselyn Ortega, pictured with Lucia Krim (right) and surviving daughter Nessie, 3 (obscured).

“We’re just having a really, really hard time here,” Karen Krim added. “We’re all falling apart ... It’s the worst nightmare any parent could ever have.”

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WHAT TO ASK WHEN YOU INTERVIEW A NANNY

 

 

Police say Lucia Krim, 6, was killed by her nanny Thursday at her home on W. 75th St. in New York.

Karen Krim spoke a day after her 6-year-old granddaughter, Lucia, and 2-year-old grandson, Leo, were found brutally stabbed in the family’s posh upper West Side apartment.

The kids’ mother, Marina Krim, was returning home from 3-year-old Nessie’s swimming lesson when she walked into her darkened W. 75th St. apartment, flicked on the lights of her bathroom and found Lucia and Leo’s bloody bodies in the bathtub.

 

On the floor beside them was Ortega, bleeding from her neck and wrists, and the kitchen knife she used to massacre the children, police said. 

 

PETER GERBER  

Nanny Yoselyn Ortega is removed from the building on W. 75th St. after allegedly killing 2 of the children in her care.

Ortega was hospitalized in critical condition Friday. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Ortega’s relatives told police she had recently started seeing a psychologist.

A neighbor of the Krims at the La Rochelle building said she shared an elevator with the nanny and the kids 30 minutes before they were found dead.

 

RELATED: HOUSTON DAY CARE WORKER LEFT KIDS ALONE TWICE ON DAY OF FATAL FIRE

 

CBS

Kevin and Marina Krim with their daughter Lucia. 

CBS

Lucia Krim, 6, was discovered dead from multiple stab wounds in the family's bath tub along with her 2-year-old brother Leo.

 

Leo Krim, 2, was stabbed to death along with his big sister at home on Thursday.

“The kids looked normal. The nanny looked normal,” said neighbor Charlotte Friedman. “She had a poker face. There was no indication that something like this was going to happen.”

Friedman, who lives on the seventh floor, said she ran into the nanny a couple of times a week in the elevator and lobby. 

 

She said she always greeted the nanny and kids with a smile, but the nanny remained stone-faced.

 

"She wasn't warm,” Friedman said. “Usually when you smile at a nanny and the kids, the nanny smiles back. It's instinctive. But she had a poker face. I didn't get the sense she was evil, just cold.” 

 

"The kids were always sweet and quiet,” Friedman added. “But she was never friendly.”

 

 

Mother Marina Krim leaves the apartment building in the company of NYPD officers.

Karen Krim said her son and his wife lived for their kids.

“Our poor son. He was such a wonderful father,” said Karen Krim, speaking from California. 

 

“The thing I’m most proud of him for is he was such a fabulous father. More than going to Harvard, more than any other accomplishment, he was a fantastic father. Those kids and Marina are the loves of his life. We’re just devastated.”

 

Karen Krim said that the family hired Ortega about three years ago. Whenever they left town with the children, the Krims would buy Ortega a flight back to the Dominican Republic.

 

PETER GERBER

Ortega was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center with wounds to her neck and throat.

“They paid for her to be with her family,” Karen Krim said.

Also Friday, The News obtained a photograph of Ortega, showing her clutching little Lucia and her sister Nessie while the Krims were on a family trip to the Dominican Republic in February.

 

The girls, smiling wide, were captured in matching embroidered tan outfits and holding pink flowers.

 

PETER GERBER

Yoselyn Ortega, 50, is loaded into an ambulence after apparently trying tng to kill herself.

“I heard she loved those kids,” said Fernando Mercado, the super at Ortega’s Hamilton Heights building.

“We were all shocked.”

 

With Rocco Parascandola

MARCUS SANTOS FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Flowers lay at a memorial for the Krims' two children, killed Thursday by the family's nanny.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/krims-treated-yoselyn-ortega-accused-killer-nanny-family-grandmother-article-1.1193015#ixzz2AcU1AWkC