October 25th, 2012, 5:35 p.m.

Marina Crim pushes open a bathroom door in her Upper Westside apartment and discovers an unimaginable horror.

Her six-year-old daughter, Lucia, and 2-year-old son, Leo, have been killed.

Their trusted nanny, Yosen Ortega, sits on the floor.

When their eyes meet, Ortega turns the weapon on herself.

This is the story of how a family recommendation, fabricated references, and undiagnosed mental illness converged into one of Manhattan’s most devastating crimes.

Murders that would spark landmark legislation, destroy multiple families, and leave the question of motive forever unanswered.

Kevin and Marina Crim lived the Upper Westside dream.

Kevin, 37, was senior vice president and general manager of CNBC Digital, a Harvard educated executive who climbed the ranks at Yahoo and Bloomberg.

Marina, 36, was a former USC educated kindergarten teacher who’ left the classroom to raise three children full-time while teaching part-time art classes at the American Museum of Natural History.

In 2010, Kevin’s CNBC promotion brought the family from San Francisco to Manhattan.

They settled into a three-bedroom apartment at Lar Rochelle, a landmarked 1896 pre-war building at 57 West 75th Street, corner of Columbus Avenue, one block from Central Park.

Their children, Lucia, called Lulu, was 6 years old, attended PS87, took ballet classes.

Leo, nicknamed Leo, was 2, 5 days away from his third birthday.

And Enz, Olivia, called Nessie, was three.

Nessie had been born with hip dysplasia, spending her first 6 months in a full body cast, but was now thriving.

Marina documented their life on a live journal blog titled Life with the Little Crim Kids: Apple Picking, Pumpkin Patches, Playdates, Birthday Parties.

Her final entry, posted around 2:30 p.m.

on October 25th, 2012, gushed about Leo’s speech development.

Leo speaks in the most adorable way possible.

I want a fresh bagel and ded wants cold milk.

And most adorable of all, no thank you.

He never uses no alone.

It’s always paired with thank you.

Her recorded mood amused.

3 hours later, she would discover his body.

Yoselen Ortega was 50 years old in October 2012.

Born in Santiago de los Cabaleros, Dominican Republic.

One of seven children to a grosser and his wife.

She’d graduated from Santa Ana College with an accounting degree in 1985.

Immigrating to New York shortly after, became a naturalized US citizen around 2002, found work at printing companies and factories.

In 1995, Ortega gave birth to a son, Jesus Alberto Frius.

When she separated from his father in 1999, she made a decision that would haunt her.

She sent 4-year-old Jesus to the Dominican Republic to be raised by her sister, Milades Garcia.

While she continued working in New York, mother and son would remain separated for 13 years.

Spring 2010, Marina Crim is visibly pregnant with Leo, standing at her daughter’s ballet class.

A woman approaches Celia Ortega, nanny for another Upper Westside family.

Celia’s employer’s children attend the same preschool as Nessie, the same ballet class as Lulu.

Celia has a proposition.

Her sister Yoseline needs work.

She’s an experienced nanny, excellent with children.

It was a recommendation built entirely on lies.

When Marina requested references, Ortega’s family manufactured them.

Her niece, Glendalis Garcia, confirmed Ortega had cared for her three children in Dallas, Texas.

Technically true, but only for approximately 3 months, her only actual child care experience.

Another niece, Yakalin Severino, also known as Jackie Vargas, sent a detailed letter via her legitimate work email claiming Ortega had cared for her toddler son Ariel for 2 years, describing her in glowing terms.

Severina was childless at the time.

Ariel was actually her husband’s name.

The Crims, trusting the word of mouth system common among wealthy Manhattan families, hired Ortega in April or May 2010.

$18 per hour, 25 hours per week, approximately $32,000 annually.

The children called her Josie.

The Crims treated Ortega with extraordinary generosity.

In February 2012, they took her on a 9-day family vacation to the Dominican Republic, paid for the entire trip, stayed at her sister’s home in Santiago.

Marina blogged enthusiastically.

We met Jos’s amazing familia, and the Dominican Republic is a wonderful country.

Photos showed both families posing together.

Ortega hugging Nessie, their cheeks pressed together.

They paid for Ortega to fly home for Christmas to visit her son.

They offered part-time work to both Jesus and Ortega’s sister, Daisy.

Kevin chatted with Jesus about sports and his future when Ortega mentioned financial difficulties that offered her additional cleaning work at $20 per hour.

By all visible measures, this was a warm, functional relationship.

But beneath the surface, something was breaking inside Yoslen Ortega.

After 13 years of separation, 17-year-old Jesus Frius moved to New York to live with his mother.

The reunion that should have brought joy instead triggered catastrophic mental deterioration.

When the New York City public school system threatened to hold Jesus back a year, Ortega enrolled him in an expensive private Catholic school.

First year’s tuition, $7,500, depleting her savings.

That same summer, Ortega lost the Bronx apartment she’d been subleting when the owners returned unexpectedly.

Money she’d spent decorating it wasted.

She was forced to move back into her sister Meades Garcia’s apartment at 610 Riverside Drive in Hamilton Heights.

Cramped quarters.

Her Jesus, her sister, her niece, all sharing space.

Her ex-husband’s child support, $140 per month, sent while Jesus lived in the Dominican Republic, stopped when the boy moved to New York.

An attempt to sell cosmetics and cheap jewelry for extra income backfired.

Witnesses later testified as soon as her son came, Ortega’s stress and anxiety mounted.

She called relatives three to four times daily, crying, saying she felt betrayed, begging them to pray for me.

By fall, she was becoming sullen and resentful.

Ortega’s behavior toward Jesus grew increasingly disturbing.

She forbade him from playing baseball or listening to music.

Most alarmingly, she commanded him to hide under the bed with her whenever they heard a dog barking.

This echoed a 2008 episode in the Dominican Republic when she’d become a paranoid shutin.

So fearful of crime she wouldn’t let him go to baseball practice.

What the Crims didn’t know, what Ortega’s family never warned them about was a decadesl long history of mental disturbance.

Defense psychiatrists would later reveal Ortega had heard voices since age 16 when her younger sister Rosa died suddenly, triggering a year-long depression during which she refused to leave the house.

In 2008, she’d suffered a severe mental crisis, becoming so unccommunicative and withdrawn that her family attempted an informal exorcism, playing music and opening windows to drive out whatever was tormenting her.

Depression ran in her family.

At least three close relatives had committed suicide.

Her sister, Deli Ortega, would later testify that Yoseline reported hearing voices, male and female, speaking in Spanish, some urging her to hurt others.

She experienced visual hallucinations of people of all colors and all sizes, including giants fighting.

She reported feeling something touch her that she thought to be the devil.

None of Ortega’s family members ever warned the Crims.

October 22nd, 2012, 3 days before the murders, Ortega makes a phone call that would become central to the trial.

She calls psychologist Dr.

Thomas Caffrey and insists on an immediate appointment.

Dr.

Cafrey, a forensic psychologist with over 40 years of clinical experience and former president of the New York State Psychological Association’s forensic division, has a full schedule, but Ortega repeatedly insists she needs to see him immediately.

He fits her in during his lunch hour.

Ortega arrives well before the appointed time, waiting silently outside his office.

The 40inut session begins at 12:20 p.m.

She presents with racing heart, anxiety, and pressured speech.

Speaking fast as if she had the world on her shoulders, she speaks mostly about her son, the guilt of having sent him away, the recent reunion, the financial stress of private school tuition.

She mentions her crowded living situation, money worries.

Dr.

Caffrey diagnoses her with generalized anxiety disorder and diste but chronic depression.

His notes state prognosis good.

What he doesn’t ask does she hear voices? Have thoughts of hurting herself or others? Family history of mental illness, sleep or appetite changes, any hallucinations? When later cross-examined at trial, Caffrey defends himself.

I’m not looking for symptoms.

I’m looking for understanding.

This was Ortega’s only contact with any mental health professional in 30 years.

She leaves with no follow-up appointment scheduled.

That same evening, something snaps.

Ortega’s sister, Deli, is awakened before dawn by sounds of her sister wildly throwing pots and pans around the kitchen.

She finds Ortega banging her head against the wall.

Deli stays with her from 5:00 a.m.

to 6:00 a.m.

The next morning, Ortega says she doesn’t remember the incident.

Defense psychiatrist Dr.

Karen Rosenbomb would later testify this was most likely a dissociative episode Thursday morning.

Ortega assembles various documents and family momentos at the Riverside Drive apartment, leaving them for her sister.

Prosecutors would later argue this showed premeditation.

She knocks on a neighbor’s door, asking to come in and make breakfast.

When the neighbor’s niece lets her in, Ortega makes bananas and cheese, but begins pacing between the living room and kitchen, unnerving the young woman.

When the niece retreats to her room, Ortega knocks on the door.

Please come out.

I can’t be alone, I’m afraid.

Jesus testifies his mother seemed depressed but kissed him goodbye before he left for high school as usual.

At 2:30 p.m., Marina posts her final blog entry about Leo’s adorable speech patterns.

Shortly after, she leaves the apartment with 3-year-old Nessie for a swimming lesson at a nearby YMCA.

The plan? Ortega will take Lulu and Leo, drop Lulu at her 5:30 p.m.

ballet class, and Marina will pick her up after Nessie’s swim lesson.

What happens next will shatter a family, devastate a community, and raise questions about mental illness, immigration, class, and the invisible women we trust with our children’s lives.

Doorman Thomas Brown would later provide crucial testimony.

In all of Ortega’s two years working at Lar Rochelle, she had never spoken to him, never initiated conversation, never made eye contact.

But that day, as she returns with the children, she approaches his desk.

She asks in broken English, “Is the mom upstairs?” He tells her Marina just left with Nessie.

Ortega takes Lulu and Leo in the elevator.

It’s the last time they’re seen alive.

What happened next can only be reconstructed from forensic evidence and crime scene investigation.

At some point in the late afternoon, Ortega takes the children to the back bathroom.

She retrieves two kitchen knives from the kitchen, one measuring 13 in.

2-year-old Leo was asleep when the attack began.

Medical examiner reports list his cause as neck injuries.

6-year-old Lulu fought for her life.

She had defensive wounds on her arms and hands, evidence of attempting to protect herself.

Both children were clothed.

They weren’t being bathed.

Marina and Nessie arrive at Lulu’s dance class.

Ortega and Lulu never appear.

Marina frantically tries to reach Ortega by phone.

No answer.

No answer.

No answer.

Approximately 5:35 p.m.

Marina rushes home with Nessie.

The apartment is dark, eerily quiet.

Finding no one, she returns to the lobby.

Door man Thomas Brown confirms he saw Ortega and the children return, but never leave.

Marina goes back upstairs.

She walks down the hallway.

She sees a sliver of light coming from under the bathroom door.

She later testifies, “I go down.

I walk down the hall and I see the light on under the back of the door and I’m like, “Oh god, it’s so quiet in here.

Oh god, why is it so quiet?” And I open the door and I open the door.

Oh god.

She finds what no parent should ever see.

Yoselen Ortega sits on the floor beside the tub, still holding a knife.

Upon making eye contact with Marina, Ortega begins harming herself, attempting to take her own life.

Marina’s screams echo through this building.

She grabs Nessie and runs to the landing where neighbor Remma Star finds her screaming and swaying.

Building superintendent Michael Minhan rushes upstairs with his 10-year-old son who witnesses the scene.

Minhan later testifies, “I first saw Ortega staring, the eyes of the devil in my face.

Her eyes were bulging.

Marina is observed banging her head against the building’s marble columns, trying to wake up from this nightmare.

The 911 call comes at approximately 5:26 p.m.

Doorman Glenn Loi makes the call.

Marina’s screams are audible in the background.

Jurors will later hear this recording.

When Detective Bradley Gore arrives, the superintendent tells him, “Whatever is in there is evil.” Detective Eugene Nicholas later describes it as the worst crime scene I have ever seen other than 911.

One responding officer stops and begins praying for the children.

The children are rushed to St.

Luke’s Hospital and pronounced deceased.

Ortega is transported to New York Presbyterian while Cornell Medical Center with severe self-inflicted injuries requiring surgery.

She’s intubated and placed in a medicallyinduced coma.

Kevin Crim is returning from a San Francisco business trip.

When his plane lands at JFK and he switches off airplane mode, his phone floods with messages.

A flight attendant asks him to come to the cockpit.

He sits in the galley as his father-in-law calls.

The words are direct.

Two of your kids are dead.

Two plane closed.

NYPD homicide detectives have to help him.

He’s escorted directly to St.

Luke’s Hospital where he finally learns which children passed away and sees them one final time.

Kevin later testifies Lulu and Leo were lying on hospital tables sheets up to their chins.

They looked beautiful and strange.

They had lost a lot of blood, so they were blue, but they still had this perfect skin, the long eyelashes.

You could see they tried really hard to wash all the blood out, but there was still kind of an auburn tint to it that I remember to this day.

CNBC puts the family in a hotel that night.

They never returned to the apartment.

Ortega remains intubated for days, unable to speak.

When she finally communicates, using an alphabet board to point at letters, her first statements aren’t about voices or demons.

She complains about her job.

I had to do everything and take care of the kids.

She expresses resentment about being asked to clean.

I worked as babysitter only and she wanted me to do everything, so wanted 5 hours of cleaning every week.

She mentions not wanting to clean because of soap.

A reference to a bleach burn on her pinky.

She says, “Marina knows what happened.

She asked to be allowed to pass away.

She never expresses remorse.

She never asks about the children.” NYPD Sergeant Yoel Hidalgo, who watches over Ortega in the hospital, testifies she makes no mention of remembering the events or hearing voices commanding her actions.

November 28th, 2012.

Ortega is arraigned from her hospital bed, pleading not guilty to two counts each of first-degree and secondderee homicide.

April 5th, 2013.

Judge Gregory Carroll rules her fit to stand trial after two New York State psychiatrists find she can assist in her defense in a meaningful way.

The defense challenges this finding.

Defense psychiatrist Dr.

Karen Rosenbomb testifies that Ortega hears voices in her head talking about harming people, doesn’t understand why she’s handcuffed to her hospital bed, and suffers brain damage from her self-inflicted injuries.

But prosecution expert Dr.

Miles Schneider from Belleview Hospital testifies there are indications Ortega might be faking symptoms of psychosis.

Nurses note she claims to hear voices but doesn’t seem to be responding to them.

She’s observed doing crossword puzzles.

A level of concentration inconsistent with active psychosis.

August 2013.

Judge Carol rules there is clear and convincing evidence that this defendant is fit after reviewing recorded jail phone calls where Ortega coherently discusses everyday matters.

November 2012 approximately 1,000 people gather at Avery Fischer Hall now David Geffenhal at Lincoln Center for the memorial service.

A painting by Lulu is displayed on the podium.

Kevin delivers the eulogy speaking about Team Crim and how the children had been best friends who took care of each other.

The Peanuts theme song.

A family favorite is played.

November 4th, 2012.

The Hippo Playground community where Marina Taught art classes organizes a flashlight vigil at Riverside Park.

Spontaneous memorials appear outside La Rochelle with flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, and children’s drawings.

The Crims release a statement.

We want to thank you for your extraordinary outpouring of love and kindness.

Lulu and Leo were two of our three best friends, and we miss them so much.

Our daughter Nessie is very strong and with your support we will be strong for her.

Over the next 5 years, Ortega makes approximately 90 court appearances before trial.

The legal system grinds slowly.

Competency evaluations, motion hearings, psychiatric assessments, the Crims wait for justice.

In late 2012, Marina and Kevin found the Lulu and Leo Fund, which will evolve in 2017 into Choose Creativity, a mission-driven nonprofit organization.

They’re building something from their tragedy, but the trial hasn’t even begun.

April 2016, Judge Carol offers Ortega a plea deal.

30 years to life in prison.

The minimum sentence for her charges.

This is notably over the objection of prosecutors who argue only life without parole is appropriate.

Ortega rejects the deal.

She wants to pursue an insanity defense.

The trial begins in March 2018, 5 and a half years after the tragedy.

Manhattan Supreme Court.

Judge Gregory Carroll presiding.

Lead prosecutors Stuart Silberg and Courtney Groves.

Defense attorney Valerie Van Leer Greenberg.

The battle lines are clear.

Defense attorney Van Leer Greenberg argues that Ortega was legally insane at the time, that she didn’t understand right from wrong due to severe psychosis.

The defense claimed she had a corroborated history of hearing voices and disassociating from reality since the age of 16 and that command hallucinations from the devil directed her actions.

She believed she was saving the children from demons.

Vanlier Greenberg states the reason for the defendant’s actions lay within her delusional mind.

Mental illness doesn’t announce itself like a bad cough or a limp.

Sometimes it sneaks up and nestles in before anyone takes notice.

Prosecutor Stuart Silberg counters that Ortega knew exactly what she was doing.

She was jealous of Marina Crim, richer and happier than she, and resentful of her own inability to provide for her son what the Crims provided for their children.

Silberg declares she did it intentionally with a full understanding of exactly what it was she was doing.

Every action deliberate.

Prosecutors acknowledge no clear motive, but argue.

Not knowing why the defendant did this doesn’t mean that she’s not responsible.

Marina is the prosecution’s first witness.

Before testifying, she turns to Ortega and declares, “You are totally out of this world, and she’s a liar.” Over 2 days of testimony, she describes the discovery as like a horror movie.

She recounts the eerie silence of the apartment, the sliver of light under the bathroom door, the moment she saw Lucia and knew instantly what had happened.

She describes Ortega sitting on the floor beside the tub, still holding a knife, making eye contact, then beginning to harm herself.

Marina describes grabbing Nessie, who had witnessed nothing, and running to the landing.

The screams the superintendent rushing upstairs with his son, banging her head against marble columns, trying to wake up.

As she leaves the stand, Marina screams, “You’re evil and you like this.

You’re getting pleasure.” Kevin faces Ortega for the first time since before the tragedy.

He describes learning it.

His children were gone while sitting in a plains galley at JFK.

His father-in-law’s words, “Two of your kids are dead.” Collapsing to the floor.

He describes arriving at St.

Luke’s Hospital, not knowing which children had passed until he saw them.

Kneeling beside them, I got down on my knees and I said, “I’m sorry.” I said, “I love them.” Kissed them and said goodbye.

When asked if he had ever seen signs of mental illness during Ortega’s employment, he replies, “Absolutely not.

Never, and I know what I know.” He describes the generosity the family showed Ortega, “The Dominican Republic vacation, paying for flights home, offering work to her family members, additional cleaning hours at higher pay when she mentioned financial stress.” The implication is clear.

This was not a family that mistreated their employee.

This was not a case of exploitation or abuse.

The heart of the trial becomes a battle between defense and prosecution psychiatric experts.

Defense expert Dr.

Karen Rosenbomb testifies that Ortega told her she was taking commands from the devil and that voices instructed her actions.

She describes Ortega’s decadesl long history of hallucinations and dissociative episodes.

The 1996 depression after her sister passed.

The 2008 mental crisis in the Dominican Republic.

The night of pots and pans 3 days before the tragedy.

Rosenbomb testifies about Ortega’s family history.

Depression running through no multiple relatives, at least three close family members who took their own lives.

She describes visual hallucinations, people of all colors and all sizes, including giants fighting, and tactile hallucinations of feeling something touch her that she thought to be the devil.

But then the prosecution calls Dr.

Ali Khadivi, a forensic psychologist.

He deals a devastating blow to the insanity defense.

He shows the jury a 2016 videotaped interview 4 years after the tragedy in which Ortega repeatedly denies that the devil had anything to do with her actions.

She tells Kadivi at no point during that day did she experience hallucination or hear any command hallucination.

This directly contradicts what she told defense psychiatrist.

The implication either Ortega is lying now to build an insanity defense or she lied to Dr.

Kadivi in 2016.

either way, her credibility is destroyed.

Dr.

Thomas Caffrey, the psychologist who saw Ortega 3 days before the tragedy, testifies for the prosecution.

He describes the October 22nd session.

Ortega’s insistence on an immediate appointment, her anxiety, pressured speech, racing heart, but he found no evidence of delusional or psychotic thinking.

She didn’t tell me about any concerns about voices or visions.

Her concerns seemed to be about her heart, her anxiety, her son, her sister, her money.

Defense attorneys attack him on cross-examination.

Why didn’t he ask about hallucinations, about thoughts of self harm or harming others, about family history of mental illness? Caffrey defends himself.

I’m not looking for symptoms.

I’m looking for understanding.

He diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder and distemic disorder.

Mild but chronic depression.

His note stated, “Prognosis good.” 3 days later, two children were gone.

Ortega’s sister, Deli, takes a stand for the defense.

She describes finding Yosin banging her head against the wall throwing pots and pans at dawn on October 22nd, the night after the psychologist appointment.

She describes Ortega’s bizarre command to her son Jesus to hide under the bed with her whenever they heard a dog barking.

She testifies about Ortega hearing voices since age 16.

Male and female voices speaking Spanish, some urging her to hurt others, visual hallucinations, the 2008 mental crisis, the prosecution’s cross-examination is brutal.

If you knew all this, why didn’t you warn the Crims? If you knew your sister was hearing voices telling her to hurt people, why did you let her continue working with small children? Deli has no good answer.

Other family members testified to similar knowledge.

They all saw the deterioration.

They all heard about the voices.

They all witnessed bizarre behavior.

None of them warned the Crims.

Jesus Frius, now 23 years old, testifies for the defense.

He describes his mother’s depression after he moved to New York in June 2012.

the financial stress, the cramped living conditions, her increasingly erratic behavior.

But according to Marina Crim’s later sentencing statement, Jesus minimizes his mother’s actions and shows inappropriate affect during testimony.

Marina will later express that this shows the family has still not taken responsibility for their roles in this tragedy.

Medical examiner testimony provides details.

2-year-old Leo, injuries sustained while sleeping.

six-year-old Lulu.

Defensive wounds on arms and hands showing she fought back.

Crime scene photographs are shown to the jury.

Multiple jurors are visibly emotional.

Some look away.

The images will haunt them for years.

The prosecution emphasizes certain details.

Both children were clothed.

They weren’t being bathed.

The attack didn’t start spontaneously during bath time.

Ortega selected two knives from the kitchen, one 13 in long.

This wasn’t a psychotic break, prosecutors argue.

This was planning.

This was awareness of consequences.

Defense attorney Vanlier Greenberg makes her final plea.

Mental illness doesn’t wear a sign.

It hides.

It waits.

Yoselin Ortega was sick.

Profoundly, dangerously sick, and nobody recognized it until it was too late.

She heard voices commanding her.

She believed she was saving these children from demons.

She was legally insane.

Prosecutor Steuart Silberg delivers the state’s closing.

She did it intentionally.

She knew right from wrong.

She complained about work grievances in the hospital, rational thoughts about real world problems, not delusions.

She waited until she was alone with the children.

She asked the doorman if Marina was home.

She selected effective weapons.

Every action shows awareness.

Every decision shows intent.

The jury receives a case.

They must decide.

Was Yosclin Ortega legally insane at the time? Unable to understand that what she was doing was wrong? or did she commit premeditated intentional homicide? New York’s insanity defense requires proving the defendant didn’t know right from wrong at the time of the crime.

It’s an extraordinarily difficult standard to meet.

The jury deliberates for just under 10 hours.

Shouting can be heard from outside the jury room.

Multiple jurors are crying.

This is not an easy decision.

April 18th, 2018.

The jury has reached a verdict.

April 18th, 2018.

Manhattan Supreme Court.

The jury files back into the courtroom.

Multiple jurors are visibly emotional.

Red eyes, tear stained faces.

This has taken a toll.

Judge Gregory Carroll asked the four person, “Has the jury reached a verdict?” We have, “Your honor, the verdict? Guilty on all four counts.

Two counts of firstdegree intentional homicide.

Two counts of secondderee intentional homicide.

The insanity defense is rejected.

Marina and Kevin embrace.

Marina weeps.

Kevin closes his eyes.

5 and 1/2 years of waiting for this moment.

Yoselin Ortega shows no visible reaction.

She sits motionless at the defense table.

Juror David Curtis later explains the deliberation.

We could not find strongly credible proof that the defendant was not aware and able to recognize what was going on.

Several factors prove decisive.

The videotaped contradiction.

Ortega’s 2016 interview with Dr.

Kadivi showed her repeatedly denying that the devil or voices had anything to do with her actions, directly contradicting what she told defense psychiatrists.

This suggested either malingering or embellishment of symptoms after the crime.

Dr.

Caffrey session just 3 days before the tragedy.

Ortega sought psychological help but never mentioned voices, hallucinations, or commands to harm anyone.

She spoke about anxiety, her son, and money problems, rational concerns, not psychotic delusions.

her coherent hospital statements.

When Ortega first communicated after the crime, she complained about work grievances, being asked to clean, schedule changes, feeling she had to do everything.

This demonstrated logical thought about real world issues, not delusional content, evidence of planning.

Prosecutors pointed to her actions on the morning of October 25th, leaving family documents for her sister, asking the doorman if Marina was home, confirming she’d be alone with the children, selecting two knives, absence of remorse.

Throughout her hospital interviews and the trial, Ortega never expressed grief for the children.

When defense psychiatrist Dr.

Rosenbomb was asked if Ortega was sad and depressed because she misses being able to see Leo and Lulu, she answered, “No.” The jury didn’t believe Ortega was taking commands from the devil.

They believed she made a choice.

Juror David Curtis reports having nightmares afterward.

Another juror says she can no longer take baths.

Another reports an inability to sleep.

The crime scene photographs.

Marina’s testimony.

The 911 call with Marina’s screams in the background.

The medical examiner’s description of Lulu’s defensive wounds.

A six-year-old girl trying desperately to protect herself.

These images will stay with them forever.

Nearly a month after the verdict, Judge Gregory Coro holds a sentencing hearing.

This is when victims give impact statements.

This is when the defendant can speak.

This is when the judge issues the final punishment.

Kevin Crim speaks first.

The defendant is an evil and utterly dangerous narcissist.

It is right that she should live and remain in a metal case like the ugly and dark shadow of Lulu and Leo’s bright and shiny light.

Marina Crim’s statement is longer, more detailed.

The defendant may think she destroyed Lulu and Leo, but she is a failure in this, too.

Lulu and Leo are powerful forces.

They are two stars now who will always lead us forward.

She speaks about Nessie.

Each time she makes a wish, it’s always for Lulu and Leo to come back to be with us.

Nessie knows this wish will never come true.

Marina condemns the fake references that enabled Ortega’s hiring.

These unethical women deceive me from the very first moments our paths crossed.

She expresses anger at Jesus Freos for minimizing his mother’s actions during testimony.

She says the family has still not taken responsibility for their roles in this tragedy.

For the first time during the entire trial, Yoselin Ortega shows visible emotion.

Speaking through a Spanish English interpreter, she weeps.

I’m very sorry for everything that happened, but I hope that no one goes through what I have gone through.

Although many people wish me all the worst, my life is in the hands of God.

I ask for a great deal of forgiveness to God, to Marina, to Kevin.

I wish my family had told them that I did not feel well.

Even at sentencing, she partially deflects blame onto her family for not warning the Crims about her mental illness.

Judge Gregory Caro delivers his sentence, life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Life on the first degree counts, plus consecutive 25-year sentences on the second degree counts.

Carol calls Ortega’s actions pure evil and blames both her and her family for failing to seek treatment and for hiding her deteriorating condition from the Crims.

Yosen Ortega is 60 years old.

She will spend the rest of her life incarcerated.

She’s immediately transported to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, New York, the state’s only maximum security women’s prison.

Ortega’s legal team files appeals in February 2022.

The appellet division affirms the conviction, dismissing the two secondderee counts as inclusary concurrent counts, but otherwise upholding the judgment.

November 20th, 2023.

The New York Court of Appeals issues its ruling in People versus Ortega.

The court finds that admitting autopsy reports through Dr.

Susan Elely, a medical examiner who didn’t perform the autopsies, violated Ortega’s sixth amendment confrontation rights.

However, the court rules this constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the evidence of guilt was overwhelming and the autopsy reports had no bearing on the insanity defense.

Ortega’s conviction stands.

Her appeals at the state level are exhausted.

She remains at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

She’s now 62 years old.

No public reports about her prison life, health, or any statements have emerged since her incarceration.

The Crims never returned to the Upper Westside apartment.

Kevin later writes that that world felt emotionally radioactive.

They moved to downtown Manhattan.

They had two more children after the tragedy.

Felix was born in October 2013, almost exactly 1 year after the events.

Lionus was born in January 2016.

Kevin has written that each child is genetically and spiritually half Lulu and half Leo.

Their surviving daughter, Nessie, continues to thrive.

Kevin has shared that she still wishes for Lulu and Leo to come back, knowing this wish will never come true.

In late 2012, Marina and Kevin founded the Lulu and Leo Fund, which evolved in 2017 into Choose Creativity, a mission-driven nonprofit organization.

The transformation reflected their belief that creativity, not just as art, but as a mindset, was central to their own healing.

Kevin writes for Cheryl Sandberg’s OptionB project.

Marina and I believe that creativity is a positive act of defiance in the face of the destructive forces of violence and negativity.

Choose Creativity’s flagship initiative is Learn with Creative Confidence, a preK through 6th grade bilingual English and Spanish curriculum focused on social emotional learning and resilience.

The curriculum is built around the 10 principles of creativity that Marina and Kevin developed from their healing journey.

The organization has partnered with NYC Department of Education districts four and five, East Harlem and Harlem, and works with Harvard Graduate School of Education’s EAL lab to validate the curriculum’s impact.

As of 2024, Choose Creativity has reached 30,420 students and trained 1,858 instructors.

Total revenues, $885,48.

Total assets 1,465,713.

The organization hosts an annual Choose Creativity Awards gala honoring fierce innovators.

The next event is scheduled for June 2nd, 2026.

In response to the fake references that enabled Ortega’s employment, the Crims champion legislation making it a criminal offense to falsify caregiver references.

Lulu and Leo’s Law passed the New York State Assembly and Senate in June 2018 and was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in August 2018.

The law establishes the offense of misrepresentation by or on behalf of a caregiver for children when a person intentionally makes a materially false written statement about a caregiver’s background, experience, or qualifications.

It’s classified as a class A misdemeanor up to 6 months incarceration and applies to caregivers providing 15 or more hours of inhome care per week.

Kevin Crim states at the signing, “We hired the woman who harmed our children based on a deliberate set of lies.

Thanks to Governor Cuomo’s support and the hard work of the sponsors, there is now a strong deterrent to that kind of deception.

Lulu and Leo’s law remains in effect in New York State.

No similar federal legislation has passed.

The law is cited by industry experts as legitimizing the nanny profession and providing accountability for reference fraud.

The prosecution acknowledged from the beginning they couldn’t explain why Ortega harmed two children who called her Josie and whose family had treated her with unusual generosity.

They argued not knowing why the defendant did this doesn’t mean that she’s not responsible.

The defense’s explanation command hallucinations from the devil was rejected by the jury who found the evidence unconvincing.

Especially after Dr.

Kadivi’s videotaped interview where Ortega denied any devil involvement.

So what was the motive? Theory one, jealousy and resentment.

Prosecutors suggested Ortega was jealous of Marina, richer, happier, able to provide her children everything Ortega couldn’t provide Jesus.

The Dominican Republic vacation may have crystallized this resentment.

Seeing Ortega’s family’s modest home, seeing the wealth disparity perhaps triggered something.

When Jesus moved to New York and Ortega depleted her savings on private school tuition, the contrast became unbearable.

Theory two, mental illness without clear motive.

Ortega had a documented history of hearing voices since age 16.

Visual hallucinations, dissociative episodes.

Perhaps there was no rational motive.

Perhaps this was a psychotic break that happened to occur on October 25th, 2012.

And the victims happened to be the two children in her care.

random, senseless, inexplicable.

Theory three, undiagnosed severe mental illness triggered by acute stressors.

The combination of Jesus’s arrival, financial stress, cramped living conditions, and perhaps undiagnosed depression from having essentially abandoned her son 13 years earlier created a perfect storm.

The night of pots and pans 3 days before the tragedy, banging her head against the wall, throwing cookware, then not remembering it may have been the final warning sign that was missed.

We’ll never know for certain.

Ortega’s own explanations have been contradictory.

Her hospital statements focus on work grievances.

Her statements to defense psychiatrists involved devil commands.

Her trial testimony through tears asked for forgiveness and blamed her family for not warning the Crims.

The motive remains a mystery.

One thing is absolutely clear.

The Crims hired Yoselin Ortega based on deliberate lies.

Celia Ortega approached Marina at a ballet class and recommended her sister, claiming she had nanny experience.

She had never been a nanny.

When Marina requested references, the family manufactured them.

Glendali’s Garcia confirmed Ortega cared for her three children in Dallas.

Technically true, but only for about 3 months.

Her only actual childcare experience.

Yelene Severino sent a detailed letter via her legitimate work email claiming Ortega cared for her toddler son Ariel for 2 years.

Severino was childless.

Ariel was her husband’s name.

These lies enabled Ortega’s employment.

Without them, the Crims would have discovered she had no relevant experience and likely never hired her.

Celia Ortega and the relatives who provided fake references have never publicly commented.

No charges were ever filed against them.

Lulu and Leo’s law wasn’t enacted until 2018, 6 years after the tragedy.

The law now makes such deception an offense, but it can’t bring back Lulu and Leo.

3 days before the tragedy, Ortega sat in Dr.

Thomas Caffy’s office for 40 minutes.

She presented with anxiety, pressured speech, racing heart.

She spoke about her son, money worries, crowded living situation.

Dr.

Dr.

Caffrey diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder and distemic disorder.

Prognosis: good.

He never asked, “Do you hear voices? Have thoughts of hurting yourself or others?” Family history of mental illness.

Hallucinations.

When cross-examined at trial, Caffrey defended himself.

I’m not looking for symptoms.

I’m looking for understanding.

But symptoms are exactly what could have prevented tragedy.

If Caffrey had asked about hallucinations, Ortega might have disclosed the voices.

If he’d asked about thoughts of harming others, she might have revealed the command hallucinations.

If he conducted a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation instead of a 40-minute lunch hour session, he might have recognized active psychosis requiring immediate hospitalization.

Instead, Ortega left with a good prognosis and no follow-up appointment.

3 days later, two children were gone.

This was Ortega’s only contact with any mental health professional in 30 years.

The system failed catastrophically.

Ortega’s sister, Deli, knew Yoselin heard voices, male and female, speaking Spanish, some urging her to hurt others.

She knew about visual hallucinations.

She knew about the 2008 mental crisis.

She found her sister banging her head against the wall and throwing pots and pans 3 days before the tragedy.

Other family members knew, too.

They witnessed bizarre behavior.

They heard about the voices.

They saw the deterioration.

None of them warned the Crims.

At sentencing, Judge Caro blamed the family as much as Ortega herself.

Kevin and Marina condemned them in victim impact statements.

Marina specifically called out these unethical women who deceived her from the beginning.

Why didn’t they warn the Crims? Possible explanations, fear of Ortega losing her job and the family losing that income stream.

Ortega helped support multiple relatives.

Cultural stigma around mental illness.

Admitting Yoselin had psychiatric problems might bring shame on the family.

genuine belief that Ortega could control it or that it wasn’t serious enough to endanger children.

Immigration concerns worried that revealing mental illness might affect Ortega’s citizenship status or employment prospects.

Whatever the reason, their silence was complicit in two children’s passing.

The Crim case exposed uncomfortable truths about wealth, class, and child care in New York City.

Upper Westside families routinely hire caregivers based on word- of- mouth recommendations from other wealthy families.

The system operates on trust, tennis court conversations, ballet class introductions, playground networking.

Background checks are often cursory.

Reference verification is minimal.

The assumption if another wealthy family vouches for someone, they must be trustworthy.

This informal system works most of the time, but when it fails, it fails catastrophically.

The Crims paid Ortega $18 per hour for 25 hours per week, approximately $32,000 annually.

This was likely below market rate for a full-time nanny in Manhattan, but reasonable for part-time work.

However, the Crims were extraordinarily generous in other ways, paying for vacations, flights home, offering work to relatives, providing additional cleaning hours.

Yet, there was still a massive wealth gap.

Kevin earned hundreds of thousands as a CNBC executive.

Marina came from affluence.

The Lar Rochelle apartment, a three-bedroom in a landmarked building one block from Central Park, was worth millions.

Ortega lived in a cramped apartment in Hamilton Heights, sharing space with multiple relatives, depleting her savings on her son’s school tuition, selling cheap jewelry, trying to make extra money.

Did this wealth gap create resentment? Prosecutors suggested it did.

The Dominican Republic vacation may have crystallized it.

Ortega seeing her own family’s modest circumstances contrasted with the Crim’s ability to casually pay for a 9-day international trip.

But the class analysis doesn’t excuse the actions.

Many low-income caregivers work for wealthy families without becoming harmful.

The mental illness was the catalyst.

The class resentment may have been the Tinder.

The case inspired French Moroccan author Leila Simmani’s novel, The Perfect Nanny, published in France as Shanondus in 2016.

The novel explicitly relocates the Crim case to Paris.

It opens with the same shocking discovery.

Children found deceased harmed by their nanny.

The novel won France’s prestigious Preonor in 2016.

Slammani was the first Moroccan woman to receive the honor.

It sold over 600,000 copies in France, was translated into 35 plus languages, and was named one of the 10 best books of 2018 by the New York Times Book Review.

In January 2023, HBO announced a television series adaptation starring Nicole Kidman and Maya Erskin.

Erskin serves as creator and writer with Kidman producing through Blossom Films.

The project was acquired in a competitive bidding situation.

Multiple true crime podcasts have covered the case.

Murder in America.

Words.

Episode 124.

Bad Axe, a true crime podcast.

Episode 51.

The Nanny and the Devil, Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast, The Crim Murders in 2024.

The case entered popular consciousness as a cautionary tale about child care, mental illness, and the hidden lives of domestic workers.

Kevin Crim is president and CEO of Edo, Inc., a TV advertising data measurement, and analytics company co-founded by actor Edward Norton.

He regularly appears on CNBC discussing streaming and advertising measurement.

Marina Crim serves as co-founder and creative director of Choose Creativity, leading curriculum development and advocacy work.

Both contributed essays to Cheryl Sandberg’s OptionB project about adversity and resilience.

Marina wrote about finding magical things, signs from her children in everyday moments, like a piece of street art that reminded her of Leo.

Kevin wrote about the morning after the tragedy when Nessie’s simple words, “Daddy, I’m hungry,” gave him purpose to continue.

On the 10th anniversary in October 2022, Kevin published an essay titled The Grace of Our Stars on Medium, reflecting on loss, resilient, and the continuing legacy of his children.

The family has three living children, Nessie, now 15, Felix, now 11, and Lionus, now eight.

They live in downtown Manhattan, far from the Upper West Side where the tragedy occurred.

Yoselen Ortega is incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, New York.

She’s serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

She’s now 62 years old.

No public reports about her prison life, health, or any statements have emerged since her incarceration.

She has no possibility of release.

She will spend her remaining years at Bedford Hills.

Her son Jesus Frius is now approximately 29 years old.

No public information about his current life or whether he maintains contact with his mother.

The relatives who provided fake references, Celia Ortega, Glendale Garcia, Yakulene Severino, have never publicly commented.

They were never charged with offenses.

They presumably still live in the New York area.

The CRM case revealed multiple systemic failures.

Informal hiring practices among wealthy families that bypass professional background checks and credential verification.

A mental health system where a woman in acute crisis can leave a psychologist office with a good prognosis after a 40minute session.

Cultural and familial silence around severe mental illness.

Allowing a woman who heard voices commanding harmful actions to continue working with children.

immigration and employment pressures that may have incentivized hiding psychiatric problems, the absence of mandatory mental health screening for childcare providers.

Lulu and Leo’s law addresses only one of these failures, the reference fraud.

The other systemic problems remain largely unressed.

More than 12 years after October 25th, 2012, the Crim family tragedy remains haunting in its senselessness.

The prosecution acknowledged they couldn’t explain why Ortega harmed two children who called her Josie and whose family had treated her with unusual generosity.

The defense’s explanation command hallucinations from the devil was rejected by a jury who found the evidence unconvincing.

What remains clear is the cascade of failures that preceded the tragedy.

A mental health system that allowed a woman in crisis to leave a psychologist’s office 3 days before the event.

a family network that witnessed years of deteriorating behavior but warned no one.

An informal hiring system built on fabricated references.

The Crims have channeled their grief into advocacy and education.

Choose Creativity continues expanding, now serving over 30,000 students with curricula designed to build resilience through creative expression.

Lulu and Leo’s Law stands as the nation’s first legislation criminalizing false caregiver references.

Kevin and Marina Crim have three children today.

They speak publicly about healing while acknowledging wounds that never fully close.

In his 2017 essay, Kevin wrote about the moment that kept him alive.

When you wake up the first morning to a new and terrible world, what do you do? I didn’t feel like I’d ever want to do anything ever again.

But then little Nessie, our surviving child who was not yet four years old, looked at me and said, “Daddy, I’m hungry.” Yoselin Ortega will spend the rest of her life at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

She’s 62 years old.

The question of why, the motive that no expert, prosecutor, or juror could definitively identify, remains as unanswered as it was on October 25th, 2012, when Marina Crim pushed open a bathroom door and discovered the unimaginable.

Two children gone, a nanny with a weapon, a family destroyed, a community devastated.

12 years later, we still don’t know