NEW YORK (AP) -- A mother returned home to her luxury apartment building near Central Park on Thursday to find two of her small children stabbed to death in a bathtub and their nanny, with self-inflicted stab wounds, lying near them, police said.
The nanny, who was found near a knife, was hospitalized in critical condition and was in police custody, and authorities said she is suspected of killing the children, who were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The children's mother entered the dark apartment with her 3-year-old and thought her other two children were out with the 50-year-old nanny, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. She went downstairs and asked the doorman at her building, La Rochelle, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, whether he'd seen them leave. When he said no, she went back upstairs and discovered her 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter in the bathroom, Kelly said. It's unclear how many times the children were stabbed.
The nanny was found on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck, and a kitchen knife was close by, police said. There was no water in the bathtub, they said.
Kelly said it's unclear how long the nanny had worked for the family and the police investigation was ongoing.
The apartment building sits in one of the city's most idyllic neighborhoods, a block from Central Park, near the Museum of Natural History and blocks from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The neighborhood is home to many affluent families, and seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life there, making the idea of such violence even more disturbing to residents.
A police crime scene vehicle is parked in front of the luxury Manhattan apartment building where police say a nanny stabbed two small children to death in a bathtub and then stabbed herself in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Police say the children's mother found the scene after returning home with another child. (Credit: AP)
New York Police Department's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Brown responds to questions during a news conference Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, New York. Police say a nanny at a luxury New York City apartment building has stabbed two small children to death in a bathtub and stabbed herself. (Credit: AP)
A police officer leaves the luxury Manhattan apartment building where police say a nanny stabbed two small children to death in a bathtub and then stabbed herself in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. The nanny, who was found near a knife, was hospitalized in critical condition and was in police custody, and authorities said she is suspected of killing the children, who were pronounced dead at a hospital. (Credit: AP)
Music therapist Rima Starr, who lives on the same floor as the family, said she heard screams coming from their apartment at around 5:30 p.m.
"There was some kind of screaming about, 'You slit her throat!'" she said. "It was horrible."
She said she believed the nanny had been hired just recently.
"I met her in the elevator, the day before yesterday, and was making small talk," she said.
After police arrived, she said, the mother remained in the building's lobby, screaming hysterically and clutching her surviving child.
