Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman, said family members had told detectives that Ms. Ortega “over the last couple of months was not herself.” 
 
 “She was, according to others, seeking some professional help,” he said, adding, “There were financial concerns.” 
 
 Ms. Ortega, who the police said was a naturalized American citizen from the Dominican Republic, had worked for the Krims for about two years. Mr. Krim’s father, William Krim, 74, said the parents had not returned to their apartment. “We don’t understand what happened to her mind.” 
 
 Still, neighbors were shocked that she was suspected of stabbing to death little Lucia Krim, 6, and her baby brother Leo, 2, on Thursday before slashing her own wrists and throat in the kids’ West 75th Street apartment. NEIGHBORS SHARE IN THE HORROR 
 
 NANNY ACCUSED OF STABBING TODDLERS TO DEATH 
 
 PHOTOS: REMEMBERING LEO AND LUCIA KRIM 
 
 “She snapped,” said Celia Ortega, the nanny’s sister. “She spent most of her time locked up inside the apartment.” 
 
 Photo 
 
 Once she moved to the Bronx, Ms. Ortega stayed in touch with Ms. Lajara, her friend. Ortega’s tearful sister, Celia Ortega, of The Bronx, nannied for a girl in the same ballet class as the Krim girls and recommended her sister for a job with the Krim family. “She spent a lot of money on the Bronx apartment,” Mr. Mercado said of Ms. Ortega. He was such a wonderful father,” the grandmother said. An acquaintance of Mr. Krim said he had been extremely happy in California and often lamented the difficulties of family life in New York and how it was necessary for a big family to have help. MOTHER’S BLOG SERVES AS HAUNTING TRIBUTE TO KIDS 
 
 READ BLOG EXCERPTS HERE 
 
 Law-enforcement sources said Ortega, a Dominican who has been a US citizen for 10 years, complained of money troubles, and her employers, Marina and Kevin Krim, had given her more hours of work. Pray for me.’”Lajara said Ortega, 50, adored the Krim children.“She was very happy with the work,” Lajara said.“She liked the kids. I didn’t get the sense she was evil, just cold.”Ortega’s neighbors in Hamilton Heights said the deeply religious woman ran a side business selling makeup and sometimes complained about being broke.“She had said that someone owed her 100 or 200 dollars for makeup she sold,” said Maria Lajara. Marina Krim maintained a blog, on which she chronicled “life with the little Krim kids.” 
 
 Charlotte Friedman, a retiree who lives in the Krims’ building, may have been the last person to see the children alive. Ms. Friedman described the girl as “happy, happy, happy.” 
 
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 The times she had encountered Ms. Ortega, she found her cold.  Marcus Santos for New York Daily News 
 
 A neighbor of the family who shared an elevator with the nanny and the kids 30 minutes before they were found dead said nothing seemed amiss.“The kids looked normal.
– The 50-year-old nanny accused of fatally stabbing two young siblings in her care had been on a downward spiral in recent months, losing weight, worried about money, and growing increasingly withdrawn, according to accounts by friends and family to the media. But Yoselyn Ortega, who remains in an induced coma after trying to kill herself, seemed to have no problems with the family she worked for. "They treated her like family," the victims' grandmother tells the Daily News: New York Post: “She looked very unhealthy," says one of her neighbors. "It looked like she was going through some problems. She had aged a lot—like seven years in a few months.” New York Times: "She was unraveling," is the story's first sentence. Ortega, a Dominican who has been a US citizen for a decade, shared an apartment with her son, sister, and niece, and her sister told a friend that Ortega felt lately like "she was losing her mind." The family took her to a psychologist. Daily News: Ortega sold cosmetics on the side to try to make extra money. “She had said that someone owed her 100 or 200 dollars for makeup she sold,” says one neighbor. “She said, ‘Someone owes me money. Pray for me.’”