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Sister says killer nanny 'snapped'

NEW YORK, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The New York nanny accused of killing two children in her care "snapped," her sister says.

Yoselyn Ortega, 50, remains under guard in an induced coma after slashing her own throat, the New York Post reported Saturday. Her sister, Celia Ortega, told the newspaper she recommended Yoselyn as a nanny for Kevin and Marina Krim and knew of the job because she cares for a child in the same dance class as one of the Krim children.

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"She snapped," Celia said. "Who knows what was going on in her mind."

Marina Krim found Lucia, 6, and Leo, 2, dead in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment building Thursday. She had taken another daughter, Nessie, 3, to a swimming lesson and expected Ortega to meet her there with the other children.

Neighbors in the Bronx said Ortega had lost a lot of weight recently and complained of physical, mental and financial problems.

"She looked very unhealthy. It looked like she was going through some problems," Ruben Diaz said. "She had aged a lot -- like seven years in a few months."

Ortega, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, had been a U.S. citizen for about 10 years. She has a 17-year-old son.

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Charlotte Friedman, a neighbor of the Krims, said she saw Ortega and the two children in the elevator about 30 minutes before the killings.

She said everything seemed normal and Lucia looked "happy, happy, happy."

"She looked so delightful," Friedman told the Post. "I said, 'What did you do?' and she said, 'Dancing.' And that was it."

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