Police Have Yet to File Charges in the Manhattan Nanny Murders

Although it seems pretty clear to law enforcement officials that Yoselyn Ortega, a nanny for three children in Manhattan, stabbed two of those children to death, she has yet to be charged with anything. That’s because, according to the AP, Ortega, who survived stabbing herself in the throat and slashing her own wrists, remains hospitalized in NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, meaning that investigators have yet to question her (though she very recently regained consciousness).

According to Paul J. Browne, chief spokesman for the Police Department, delaying charges until being able to properly interview a suspect is standard operating procedure, and, since Ortega has so far been unable to speak, her long and winding journey into the clutches of law and order has been briefly delayed. Said Browne,

We wouldn’t charge a hospitalized suspect under these circumstances until an interview was conducted after consulting with doctors on the subject’s condition. Obviously, an interview can’t take place when somebody’s intubated.

A toxicology report on Ortega came back negative for any alcohol or narcotics, and police have ordered a search of her Hamilton Heights apartment to see if they could make the horrifying crime make some kind of sense. That, of course, will probably prove impossible, since nothing about the sudden and gruesome murder of two children at the hands of their caretaker can be satisfactorily explicated.