MAEVE and ANNABEL KELLY - Sisters stabbed by Aunt - 7 and 9 yo - Katonah/Bedford NY

A woman is accused of stabbing her nieces
while baby-sitting them at their home in an upscale New York community.


Police say the girls were found with multiple stab wounds on the kitchen floor of their Katonah home on Saturday.


The girls have been hospitalized in serious condition. They are 7 and 9 years old.


Their aunt, Lisa Turkki of East Syracuse,
was arraigned on two counts of assault and is being held at a county
jail. The name of her attorney was not on record early Monday.


She was watching the girls while the parents attended a concert down the street.


Katonah is a hamlet of Bedford. It's about 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

A woman baby-sitting her two young nieces went berserk and stabbed
them repeatedly in a bloody rampage in her sister and brother-in-law's
showcase Westchester home authorities said yesterday. Lisa Turkki, 39, grabbed a knife
from the kitchen of the Katonah home and stabbed Maeve and Annabel
Kelly, ages 7 and 9, at around 9 p.m. Saturday, seriously wounding both
youngsters, said police in Bedford, the town that encompasses Katonah.
A 911 call was placed at 9:22 p.m., apparently by Turkki, pleading for help.
The girls' parent -- financier Joe Kelly, 50, and Eva, 43, --
were in nearby Caramoor attending a concert. They were called to the box office
at intermission and told to return home. Neighbors heard screams from the parents
as they entered the blood-spattered kitchen where the mayhem unfolded.
"This is a parent's worst nightmare," said Heather Flournoy, who once
wrote on her blog, Katonah Green, about the family and their innovative
"green" home. "Heartbreaking and close to home."
Turkki was arrested in the front yard on assault charges. Her nieces
were in stable condition at Westchester Medical Center and were expected
to survive. "They are lovely, the loveliest couple I know,"
said Tapani Talo, 59, the contractor who helped turn the Kelly home into
a cutting-edge example of green living, featuring geothermal heating.
"The girls are so great. I can't believe this would happen to them. I
would assume anyone who could do this would have mental problems," Talo
said. Neighbors knew little of the aunt, who lives with her parents upstate.
Calls to the home were not answered. "She didn't seem quite right -- a little odd,"
one neighbor told The Post. Records show Turkki, who lives in East Syracuse, was a volunteer at
ARISE, a nonprofit that works with people with physical and mental
disabilities, in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Talo said Joseph Kelly travels around the world
for his work in financial services. His wife, who used to be in finance,
now stays home with her girls, he said. Flournoy, 41, used to give
Eva Kelly horseback-riding lessons. "That family is just so sweet," she remarked. "They're raising
chickens and bunnies and gardening. I've had the girls around my pony,
and they are just sweet, regular girls, a little shy with new people."
Neighbors rallied around the family. "There is little to be
said that isn't already in everyone's thoughts," one neighbor wrote on
Facebook. "It's what we try to protect against, and wonder why it still
happens. It's very hard to believe that anyone is capable of this."

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A woman who admitted stabbing her two young nieces at their home across from Martha Stewart’s estate was found not responsible Monday because of mental illness.

Lisa Turkki, 40, of East Syracuse, is to be committed to a psychiatric institution. Her case will be reviewed every two years and if she is ever found to have recovered, she could be released, the district attorney’s office said.

With the agreement of the judge, prosecutors and defense, Turkki entered a plea of guilty but not responsible to charges of attempted murder, assault and weapons possession.

Turkki was babysitting Maeve Kelly, 7, and Annabel Kelly, 9, of Katonah, on July 31 while their parents attended a Dr. John concert at the Caramoor Center, a popular summertime music venue within walking distance of the house.

At about 9:20 p.m., Turkki called 911 and said she had stabbed her nieces. Police found the girls slashed and bleeding but conscious. They have recovered. Turkki was arrested without incident.

According to court papers, Turkki told police she had driven to her sister’s home to kill her family but didn’t know why. “I feel sorry for what I did to my sister,” she said, the papers show.

Turkki said she was “schizoaffective” and may have missed some medications, the papers say. A person with schizoaffective disorder can have hallucinations, delusions, mania and depression.

Turkki had faced a sentence of up to 25 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/east_syracuse_woman_pleads_gui.html

Welcome Raineysaysend and thank you for the update. I can move to adjudicated now.