US nanny slashes self after stabbing 2 children

On Thursday evening around 5.30, Police Commissioner Raymond W Kelly said,Marina Krim returned to her Upper West Side apartment with her 3-year-old daughter to discover her two other children,a 2-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl,dead of knife wounds in the bathtub and Ortega slashing herself with the same bloodied kitchen knife used on the children.

Ortega,50,survived,but the police have been unable to question her as she remains intubated in the hospital with a deep stab wound in her throat. She has not yet been charged.

The authorities remain mystified over the motive. Paul J Browne,the chief police spokesman,said family members had told detectives that Ortega over the last couple of months was not herself. She was,according to others,seeking some professional help, he said adding,There were financial concerns.

Ortega,who the police said was a naturalised American citizen from the Dominican Republic,did not come to the Krim family through an agency,which customarily does background checks. A law enforcement official said Ortega had had no previous brushes with the law,nor have detectives learned of any tensions in her relationship with the Krims.