The therapist who saw a Manhattan nanny just days before she stabbed the two young children in her charge to death, said she hadn’t appeared suicidal or murderous during their session.
Dr. Thomas Caffrey said that Yoselyn Ortega had been coming to see him for a variety of different issues including anxiety, depression, and guilt.
The last time time he saw Ortega was just three days before she snapped and stabbed six-year-old Lulu and two-year-old Leo Krim to death in the bathroom of their Upper West Side apartment in October 2012. The nanny has since pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity.
Dr. Thomas Caffrey (pictured in court) the therapist who saw a Manhattan nanny just days before she stabbed the two young children in her charge to death, testified in court on Thursday that she hadn’t appeared suicidal or murderous during their session
Caffrey said there was ‘no evidence’ that the 50-year-old suffered from delusions or hallucinations. Ortega claimed she’s heard voices and was ‘touched by the devil’ which drove her to kill the young kids.
‘She didn’t tell me about any concerns about voices or visions, smells, tactile. No indication of hallucinations,’ Caffrey testified in Manhattan Supreme Court.
‘Her concerns seemed to be about her heart, her anxiety, her son, her sister, her money. She impressed me as a worried, anxious, frightened person.’
During his testimony, Ortega sat in court, shaking her head, and pursed her lips and told her lawyer: ‘No, no.’
The court heard that Ortega, who made the appointment with Caffrey under the name Yoselyn Perez, was concerned about her son Jesus’ recent move from the Dominican Republic to New York.
Caffrey said that Yoselyn Ortega (pictured in court on Friday) had been coming to see him for a variety of different issues including anxiety, depression, and guilt
The bodies of Lulu (left) and Leo (right) were found with their eyes open after Ortega stabbed them to death
The move was expensive and Caffrey said it made her feel inadequate as a mother.
During the hour-long session at his Columbus Circle office, she explained that her heart had been racing with anxiety as a result of the move.
‘For an as-yet-unexplained reason, patient has been feeling racing heart anxiety as result of the moves and son’s being here, with her only voicing that she’s not done well by him in these matters,’ Caffrey testified, adding that she appeared to feel guilty over having done so little for her son over the past 12 years.
Ortega didn’t make a follow-up appointment.
Three days later, went on the killing spree.
Prosecutors have challenged Ortega’s claims she was suffering from mental health issues and believe she was jealous of the children’s mother Marina Krim who had offered her more money, if she did some housework.
On Tuesday, the jury were shown pictures of the blood smearing the walls, floor and toilet of the bathroom where the bodies of Leo and Lucia were found with their eyes open. The bottom of the tub was almost entirely red.
Marina Krim (right) leaving court clutching her husband Kevin Krim’s (left) hand. Marina erupted at Ortega on Friday after six hours of heart-wrenching testimony, She screamed at the former nanny: ‘You’re evil!’ and yelled: ‘Get me out of here!’
Marina Krim (pictured with Leo) showed up to the dance studio where Lulu was supposed to be shortly before 5pm, and panicked when Lulu wasn’t there. In less than an hour, Krim would find Lulu and Leo, dead in the bathroom of her apartment
One bloody knife sat in the sink, inches away from a pink child’s toothbrush. Another sat wrapped in a towel atop a toy refrigerator in the hallway.
At least two jurors wiped away tears as they saw the horror images, while others gasped and held their faces. By the afternoon, one juror told the judge that he could no longer be fair and impartial and was excused from the case, the New York Times reported.
Leo was stabbed five times, and Lucia, who fought back, was stabbed 30 times, according to prosecutors.
Also on Tuesday, several more first responders were called to testify.
‘That’s the worst crime scene I’ve ever seen, other than September 11,’ said paramedic Eugene Nicholas.
‘I saw blood everywhere,’ said Kevin Orr, a second paramedic.
‘Mrs. Krim was stunned and hysterical, saying, how am I going to get this out of my head?’ said paramedic Reuben Shelton.
Another EMT said that Marina Krim, who was with her three-year-old daughter Nessie when she discovered the gruesome scene, pleaded with paramedics to shield her from photographers as they left the building.
Nessie was spared from seeing the horror scene and didn’t seem to understand what had happened, the court heard.
The last time time Caffrey (pictured, right) saw Ortega was just three days before she snapped and stabbed six-year-old Lulu and two-year-old Leo Krim to death in the bathroom of their Upper West Side apartment
Ortega (pictured, Friday) faces a minimum of 20 years imprisonment if she is convicted and could be jailed for life without parole
Earlier in the week, building superintendent Michael Minihan offered a chilling account when Ortega’s eyes bulging out as she gasped for air and bled from a self-inflicted knife wound in her neck.
Minihan lived directly below the Krim family, whose kids Ortega nannied, and remembered rushing to apartment in October 2012 after hearing mom Marina Krim’s blood-curdling cries.
Krim was on the mezzanine ‘holding her middle child, Nessie, screaming incoherently,’ Minihan said.
When Minihan entered the apartment, he said he first saw Ortega, ‘staring…the eyes of the devil in my face,’ he said. ‘Her eyes were bulging.’
Ortega had stabbed herself in the neck in an attempted suicide after killing the two young children.
Minihan told the court that he avoided looking in the direction of the bathroom where the mutilated bodies of Lulu and Leo were lying.
‘I could see the tub and I could see a body or something. I tried as best as I could not to take my eyes off Ms Ortega but I could see there was a mess,’ he said, fighting back tears. ‘I just saw red, I just saw red.’
Ortega (pictured with Lulu) said she was angry that the Krims had asked her to clean the house in addition to looking after the children
Prosecutors say Ortega grabbed two kitchen knives and butchered the two children while their mother was blocks away at the dance studio where Lulu was supposed to be.
They added that Ortega waited until Marina Krim found the children dead in the bathroom before plunging a knife into her own neck so that she could relish in the devastated woman’s pain and horror
Prosecutors suggested that Ortega was jealous of Krim because she was financially stable and had a good relationship with her children.
Ortega is also alleged to have felt she deserved to work less and be paid more, but they have said there isn’t a clear motive for the crime.
Ortega said she was angry that the Krims had asked her to clean the house in addition to looking after the children.
The nanny’s attorney, Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, said Ortega heard voices and saw hallucinations in unchecked disorders.
New York has a high bar for the insanity defense, and it is rarely successful. To win, Ortega’s lawyers will have to prove she didn’t understand the consequences of her actions and didn’t know right from wrong at the time.
Ortega, 55, allegedly stabbed six-year-old Lulu and two-year-old Leo to death in the the bathroom of their Upper West Side apartment in October 2012 (Pictured, from left to right: Nessie, Lulu and Leo)
The Krims use a Facebook page to post updates on how they are doing, writing about the arrival of two new children, Felix (left) born in 2013 and Linus (right) in 2016.
The couple started the Lulu and Leo Fund, which aims to support innovative art programs for children. Their daughter, Nessie (pictured), was three at the time of the killings. She is now seven or eight
On Friday, in court, Marina Krim stormed out of the courtroom, screaming at Ortega following a harrowing six hours of testifying over two days in
‘You’re evil and you love this! You like this!’ she screamed, wailing: ‘Get me out of here. Please, get me out of here. Get me out!’ as she was escorted out of the courtroom by court officers for a short break.
The judge told jurors to disregard the outburst.
Jurors on Friday watched on surveillance footage as mom Krim stood in the lobby of a dance studio discovering her six-year-old daughter, Lulu, was not at class.
Ortega was supposed to pick up Lulu from kindergarten and walk her to dance class then go home to put Leo down for nap. Krim would go to swimming with her other daughter, three-year-old Nessie, then and head home to meet Leo and Ortega.
Krim showed up to the studio shortly before 5pm, and panicked when Lulu wasn’t there.
As she bends over her phone in the footage, Nessie plays in a bright pink coat in the lobby before Krim grabs her hand and walks out.
She frantically texted Ortega: ‘Where’s Lulu … Donde Estas … Where are you’ but Ortega never answered.
In less than an hour, Krim would find Lulu and Leo, dead in the bathroom of her apartment.
The children’s father, Kevin Krim (above with Leo and Nessie), was working as a CNBC executive at the time of the murders. He now works at a start up
Krim testified that Ortega had just been kicked out of her Bronx apartment at the time of the murders according to the New York Post.
‘I would say she was distracted. She was more arrogant…She had that smug look to her, like she has right now. It’s disgusting,’ she recalled, leading up to her children’s brutal murders.
Ortega’s defense attorney asked Krim if she ever considered firing Ortega.
‘There was nothing to fire her about at that point,’ Krim testified. ‘I was aware of her strange behaviors but nothing to fire her over.’
Krim finished her heart-wrenching testimony after about six hours between Thursday and Friday on the stand in the murder trial.
Jurors also saw a booklet of photos Marina Krim made for Ortega after a trip they all took to see Ortega’s family in the Dominican Republic.
The three children are beaming. In one photo, Ortega holds them, smiling.
Jurors also heard a doorman place a 911 call, and Krim’s anguished screams in the background.
Ortega faces a minimum of 20 years imprisonment if she is convicted and could be jailed for life without parole.
Krim’s husband, Kevin, was a CNBC executive at the time of the murders and now works at a startup.
The Krims use a Facebook page to post updates on how they are doing, writing about the arrival of two new children, Felix born in 2013 and Linus in 2016.
The couple started the Lulu and Leo Fund, which aims to support innovative art programs for children.
They recently posted a video message on Facebook asking that people mention the fund as their case becomes news again.