New York nanny indicted in double child slayings

Photographs of the two children allegedly stabbed by their nanny are displayed alongside balloons and stuffed animals at a memorial outside the apartment building were they lived, Saturday, October 27, 2012, in New York. The 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter of a CNBC executive were found dead by their mother in a dry bathtub in the family’s Upper West Side apartment Thursday night. The nanny suspected of stabbing the children was in critical condition Friday with apparently self-inflicted injuries. AP/Mary Altaffer

NEW YORK—A Manhattan nanny accused of stabbing to death two small children in her care, before slashing her own throat, has been indicted for murder in a case that has both horrified and gripped New York.

The grand jury indictment filed Tuesday in New York State Supreme Court accuses Yoselyn Ortega of murder in the first and second degree, meaning that if convicted she could face life in prison without parole.

Ortega, 50, was found by the children’s mother in her luxury apartment’s bathroom, with six-year-old Lucia Krim and her two-year-old brother Leo fatally stabbed. The nanny was bleeding from her own throat.

The horror of the October 25 bloodbath in a posh neighborhood next to Central Park shocked New York, where babysitters and nannies are heavily relied upon by parents trying to juggle jobs.

The nanny was hospitalized in serious condition and her arraignment in criminal court, expected soon, was expected to take place by video link.

The indictment accusing Ortega includes four counts of murder. New York media reports quote investigators saying the nanny had been suffering financial difficulties and stress related to her recent move to New York from the Dominican Republic.

Other reports suggest she’d been unhappy with being asked by her employers, Kevin and Marina Krim, to do extra work.