Nanny Accused in Stabbing Apparently Upset About Having to Do Extra Housework

It’s been over a week since Yoselyn Ortega, the 50-year-old former nanny who worked on New York City’s Upper West Side, allegedly stabbed two of the small children she cared for before trying to kill herself with the same knife.

Ortega, still in the hospital, has a lawyer and is refusing to answer questions about 2-year-old Leo and a 6-year-old Lucia Krim, but law-enforcement sources told the New York Post that she’s already lucid enough to talk about some of the issues she had with their parents: chiefly, that she didn’t want to do additional housework to make extra money.

“She said something like, ‘I’m paid to watch the children, not clean up and do housework,’ ” a law-enforcement source said of Yoselyn Ortega’s statements to cops after she woke up from a medically induced coma Sunday.

“There was friction between her and the family.”

In Ortega’s brief statement to police, she said her employers had arranged to give her an extra five hours a week in housekeeping work to help her make more money, law-enforcement sources said.

But she griped that the new schedule interfered with her doctor’s appointments. “They were asking her to clean, to do housework. She was unhappy about that,” the source added.

Apparently, the Krims had told Ortega – who was struggling with financial issues – that her work had been slipping and that they would replace her if she didn’t shape up. Which sounds harsh in light of subsequent and tragic events, but is also how pretty much all employer/employee relationships go. There must be more to the story.