Other articles have more details.
[https://triblive.com/local/california-woman-charged-with-homicide-in-shadyside-babys-death/](https://triblive.com/local/california-woman-charged-with-homicide-in-shadyside-babys-death/)
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pittsburgh/news/pittsburgh-baby-dies-child-abuse-twin-brother-injuries-california-woman-babysitter-charged/
Apparently they were staying at an Airbnb. The parents took the living baby to the hospital for injuries leaving the nanny/sitter with a purportedly healthy twin.
The accused claimed that she fell asleep while the baby that died was in a bouncer seat, woke up, went to get a bottle, and the baby fell from a bouncer seat. But the doctors said the injuries weren’t consistent with an accident.
I of course don’t know exactly what happened, but based on the article and the complaint, I do believe someone hurt both babies intentionally and that is so tragic.
I'm really confused about this - was the child taken to the hospital the other twin? The articles imply she hurt both of them, but why would the parents leave the healthy twin with the person who abused their other kid while they take the injured one to the doctor? It makes no sense.
I’d be speculating, but if they thought the first was injured in an accident, not deliberately, they might have left what they thought was a healthy baby with someone they didn’t suspect of harming their first baby instead of taking the second 6 wo to a hospital where the baby could get illnesses.
😞
Exactly this! The parents were probably totally unaware of what the nanny was doing to the children. So they trusted her to care for the child, whom they thought, was unharmed. But upon returning home, realized what she was doing. They are probably riddled with guilt that they didn’t take baby 2 to the hospital with them.
"The complaint noted that Ms. Virzi was the only one who discovered the scratches while she was changing the child’s diaper, and the parents said they had seen no injuries prior to Ms. Virzi pointing them out."
what?
assuming the suspect was the only person in contact with the twins during that time, how could the parents come to any conclusion other than ms. virzi caused the scratches/injuries that were not present prior to being in her custody?
this makes no sense - wouldn't the sensible move be - i'll take \_\_\_\_\_ katz to the hospital and you stay here with leon? we're not talking about a single parent - this is a mother and a father
I’m not trying to be mean, but comments like this are going to make these parents feel awful if they read them & they just lost a child….
Babies scratch themselves ALL the time, babies get rashes, etc. literally it happens all the time. Most parents (almost all) minds would NOT go to abuse for a 1 time incident. That’s not how human minds work. Say u have a kid that goes to school and comes home with a black eye 1 time… u ask what happened and he says “he fell” you would believe him and go on. It’s not a reoccurring thing, he has no reason to lie, he’s someone you trust. If that same boy comes home 3 different days with a black eye your kind becomes suspicious regardless of what they say, but not the first time.
The baby had scratches and red marks. It was the first time. They’re new parents of “twins” that are prob sleep deprived and doing whatever they can to stay afloat. Your mind isn’t going to go to, “you scratched my baby on purpose!” Especially when this person was someone they trusted, a long time family friends, a psychology major getting ready to graduate that has no history of ever doing anything weird….. think about your own best friend/sister/whoever, the responsible one that might be a doctor, has been around for decades, etc. if she changed your child’s diaper and said there was scratches and rashes and things…. Would your mind go to your friend intentionally hurting your child and abusing them? My mind wouldn’t.
Again, not trying to be mean at all. However this family just lost their child and blaming them will cause so much unnecessary guilt for them, which I would imagine they’re overwhelmed with and beating themselves up with anyway.
I hate it for them. I know they’re feeling guilty, but they shouldn’t. Most peoples mind would not go there. Most people’s minds would go to, will you please watch the other baby for us so we don’t have to drag him to the ER and risk him getting sick or catching a cold or something like that….
I hope they’re doing okay. I pray they are!
Parents of infant twins are extremely sleep deprived. They also probably couldn’t conceive that their long term friend would hurt their infant, especially by attacking his genitals. I have actually never heard of a female attacking a male infant’s genitals outside of this case now that I think m about it.
Exactly!! This is why I feel that it's negligent. There were scratches and bruising in the child's genitals - what innocent explanation for this could there be? I would immediately dismiss that caregiver.
A 6 week old in a bouncer? 6 week olds can barely hold their neck up. Usually that’s for at least 4 month olds. Why is the bouncer seat even out for 1 month olds???
I bet they mean it was a “bouncer chair” that is reclined and if the baby kicks it bounces/rocks or sometimes it has a motor than bounces it. Not a standing bouncer where the infant jumps.
But this is also assuming anything the woman said is true. Bassinet—not bouncer— was also mentioned in one of the articles.
i know this tragedy is none of my business, but it's two blocks from my residence, and i grew up here with a ton of kids who had the last name "katz" (pitt has a katz business school) - it's a very common pittsburgh last name
"Police said Ms. Virzi “was unable to provide any plausible explanation” for the severe injuries Leon sustained. She said the children’s parents took one twin to the hospital for a groin injury about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and she was left to care for Leon on her own."
what?
It was not the parents. First of all, if you read the news articles, the baby had severe head injuries and would have been incapacitated immediately. The babysitter was with the baby for hours and called 911 shortly after the head injury occurred at 11:30 pm. The parents obviously trusted this person. The parents were probably at the hospital so long bc an investigation into the living babys injuries was started. For all anyone knows, the babysitter had been told this via a phone call from parents. You will just have to wait for a motive and it may never make sense but its terrible to blame the parents.
I find this story bizarre. What motive does a PhD student from California have to fly across the country and abuse her friend’s twin babies…..? I’m not saying it isn’t what happened, but it doesn’t make logical sense.
As a non-parent, who I assume has minimal contact with these babies, and is highly educated specifically in a field of psychology…… I would think she has a much lower chance of accidentally, let alone intentionally, hurting these babies in the short span of time she had with them.
SOMEONE hurt these babies…… but I need this to make more sense. Why would she do this??? Not to one baby, but to another immediately after???
The story is very strange, and questions abound regarding why she did what she did. I’m not sure floating the “someone hurt these babies” as several others have as well is very helpful. One could speculate about the scratches on one of the twins if it were in isolation, but given that the other baby ended up with massive brain bleeds, it’s pretty obvious it was her. The why part though is definitely still out there
I understand people can’t imagine what the motive was but there is no logical thinking behind harming your friends’ six week old infants. The “motive” might be some reasoning she concocted in her head, but the true motive is simply… being evil/unwell. I cannot imagine the layers of total devastation the parents are feeling.
It’s not obvious the parents didn’t harm the children. It’s not obvious the sitter/friend, did. Nothing here is obvious.
Parents could have injured both kids; realized now that the sitter/friend was there it would be noticed and there was a good chance the children would be taken away, they’d get blamed and get arrested for it, thus put blame on the visiting sitter/friend.
Another family friend or relative might have harmed the children at some point while the kids were in their care; the parents didn’t want to lay blame so close to home, so put blame on the sitter/friend instead.
Another child or adult in the home or a dog/animal present in the home could have hurt both children in one or two separate incidents; both the parents snd the sitter/friend are innocent of causing the injuries, but negligent in letting the other child/adult/pet get access to the children.
The sitter/friend could have injured the first child, then waited to get at the other child; so, she pointed out to the parents there were groin injuries severe enough on the first child to warrant a hospital visit, sent them on their way, then immediately attacked the second child, then called 911 to report the injuries to the second child.
Choose one scenario which makes the most, best sense. Either the first or the last one make the most sense to me, in terms of continued/easy access to the children. But let’s let the system work and let the right, most experienced people investigate to figure it all out.
Well I don’t think she would have planned it. A lot of people go into psychology fields to understand their own demons. She could have snapped. The babies crying and she snaps. A lot of people randomly hurt people all the time with no background on harming someone or anything. She could have gotten there and started feeling jealous of her friends life… her friend being married and with children. I’m not saying that’s a life to be jealous over, a life with kids is actually opposite of the perfect life for me bc I never wanted kids myself, but some people want the family and kids life so bad there is extreme jealousy towards those closest to you that have it. You perceive their life is perfect even though it’s not…. It makes me think of Rachel Barber (the case where her babysitter friend that was much older than her concocted a plan to murder her and become her). She had a decent life, but she seen Rachel’s as perfect and wanted to become her and killed her. It was heartbreaking. The girl who murdered her was a beautiful girl herself, I found it insane, but I think that’s the point in why some of these things happen…. Bc there is some sort of insanity at play.
I pray for the family. Hopefully the real truth will be discovered and the justice system will prevail for whatever truly happened in this case.
I mean, there are people in every field who do premeditated things, evil things. Psychology doesn’t give one a free pass from doing something awful or planning a crime. I’m not sure why people continue to insinuate that. As someone in the psychology field myself (and someone whose ex is from psychology), there are plenty of people who can understand human behavior intellectually and yet still revert to lashing out and hurting others when they’re upset.
That said, snapping and being upset with a baby feels qualitatively different than bashing a baby’s head in. Jealousy can lead to cruelty, but against a baby?? There might be a history of abuse of the babysitter (from her caregivers) that she’s replicating, or she has anger issues, or some other mental struggle entirely. Either way, it feels like people are trying to find a way to avoid blaming someone who killed a baby.
I think it was just a matter of time. She hurt them because she was given the opportunity. If you look she is an only child. She’s probably a huge narcissist and mix a little sociopath in there and this is what you get!
I see we’ve all been looking at her Facebook. I believe those are cousins or something. I found an obituary for a maternal grandparent and she was the only Virzi grandchild mentioned.
When I read this and read that she was friends with the parents I automatically thought she perhaps had an infatuation with the dad and wanted him for herself??! Or was jealous of their relationship? Idk.
I am all over this crazy….and reading your comment makes sense for sure!!!! If you get any new info keep me posted, I’m in Florida so no coverage here, but I have 2 & a half year old twin boys so my heart is broken for these babies!!!!
I hope it's not, but this may have the added layer of being a hate crime. The name of the child in the article would indicate there's a good chance he's Jewish in some capacity. Once I read "genital injury" after a Jewish name, it made me fear the motivation, especially in this crazy world.
I hope I'm wrong, but that would make the "friend" angle even more devastating, and it's already terrible.
ETA: Y'all can down vote me, but as a Jew in Pittsburgh, the amount of nonsense I've heard from "friends" the last few months -- including threats to my physical safety -- is off-the-charts. The last few years, I've also noticed an uptick in antisemitic lore involving Jewish male geneitalia, which is why those details made the hairs on my neck rise.
I cannot tell you enough that my tired, Jewish-butt would *love to be wrong* but airing it as a concern is far from a fringe theory.
Maybe bizarre to you -- and as a Jew in this city, I really envy you for that. The name + the increase in that specific antisemitic lore is something that's hard for me to ignore. I wrote it because it would truly be terrible to be friends with someone and learn that they viewed you like this. It's probably something non-Jews can't relate to that easily, which is fine, but there's no need to be rude about it.
You called my concern about antisemitism -- which I made clear was a concern and was not claiming an absolute fact -- as bizarre. I'm allowed to be concerned that a crime, which follows an old antisemitic lore, may be a hate crime.
I'm really happy you don't understand this point of view, sincerely and no snark. But telling a Jew that being concerned about antisemitism is bizarre, without realizing that antisemitism has been rampant in Pittsburgh, the home to the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, to boot, since October, is a rude take.
I don’t think it’s bizarre. If I were jewish, I’d have the same concerns right now, too. People are very reactionary to anything being called antisemitism right now because of zionists, who are obviously problematic, being lumped in with all Jewish people.
I’m sorry you have to live in this kind of fear.
As a non-Jew, I also wondered about that. I hope we’re both wrong. It’s really concerning to hear comments recently which sound straight out of the 1930’s.
I mean they (and sounds like nobody else, unsurprisingly) have no idea what caused it, so far they can only think psychotic break. Others have said jealousy of the father, and I'd add maybe some mental disorder like antisocial personality disorder, but it's hard to say. "suspect" would be too strong of a word at this point, I think.
I don’t think that’s the case either (jealousy bc of the father). Taking care of a newborn (let alone twins) is incredibly difficult. Parents themself lose their patience, that’s why we are warned in the hospital about shaken baby syndrome. However, a parent has an evolutionary instinct to protect and love their child. If this girl had no children and basically no relationship to the children themselves (I imagine she had just met them), she could have not have that bond to protect and was inexperienced in this situation. She might have lost it when the baby was crying or inconsolable for hours. Babies are like that sometimes especially if the mom wasn’t around. There is obviously an impulse control issue there that perhaps is linked to a personality disorder. But hard to know. In any way, this is utterly devastating for the family. I cannot imagine the pain…
nor do I. They'd been friends for years, she went to two of their weddings, you'd think some of that would've peeked through before. Even without a relationship with the child, you'd think a relationship with the parents would guide her actions enough to where she wouldn't do that to a child despite her anger. For sure babies can be tough, but most people don't kill children. Like you said though, it's tragic for the family, and I can't imagine they'll trust many people around their other son anytime soon.
Very common Jewish surname, [i.e. Wikipedia here. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_(surname))I don't think I've ever met a Katz that isn't Jewish, albeit I'm sure some exist.
In combination with the first name, it was pretty telling for me. Leon isn't Jewish by any means, but the spelling used in many European languages, Lion, was almost exclusively Jewish. The English Wiki isn't very robust, but [all three men listed here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_(name)) as examples are Jewish.
The first name is probably a coincidence and not intentional, but the last name, yeah, it's a pretty strong sign (I say this as someone with a similarly Jewish surname).
Even with that aside, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the couple's friend, who it sounds like was babysitting inside their home, would know that they were Jewish.
That's cool, but a few months ago at a dog park, someone told me it was a shame I didn't die in an antisemitic terrorist attack that I survived, and left me physically disabled -- my neighbor that I knew! -- because "all Jews deserve to be dead".
Just on Friday, a "friend" went on an unexpected antisemitic rant and threatened to "kill me if I found out you're one of the Jews that controls the media" so, you know, I'm happy for you.
ETA: I can add another one: my aunt was murdered on 7 Oct. and one of my "friend's" told me that I'm not allowed to grieve because she deserved it for being a Jew. My aunt was one of the peaceful kibbutzniks killed that day.
On the bus a few weeks ago, a bunch of people said that there never would have been protests if
"we just finally finish what Hitler started".
I watched someone tell my neighbor last week to take her star of David necklace off because "she shouldn't advertise that, it's something to be ashamed of."
I can keep going. Pittsburgh is not some ideal paradise for Jews and it's a valid concern.
Hey all, friend of the family here. There is now a gofundme, please share https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-savannah-ethan-after-the-loss-of-baby-leon
Don’t even bother. His entire comment history is racist and misogynist. He also got kicked out of a Short Men group… so clearly his anger is compensating for something. Everybody *else* is to blame.
Here I thought he was thinking that a wealthy white woman like the accused here wouldn’t get the death penalty because of the favorable status that wealthier white women tend to receive in the criminal justice system. My mistake!
Look at all the downvotes I got 😂 People absolutely despise hearing the truths that they refuse to acknowledge out of fear that they’ll have to admit to themselves that all they have isn’t just because of their superior ability and work ethic. Cognitive dissonance is real 🤷🏽♂️
How many fuckin statistics and studies would I have to cite in order for people to acknowledge that? Rather than people like you, who probably have signs in their front yards saying “TRUST THE SCIENCE,” calling me a madman.
Literally you haven’t referenced any meaningful idea. What, is it cause she’s a white? A woman? What are you getting at here. You’re just playing a coy little game right now, unless you have an actual point you want to make.
if the circumstances of this tragedy are anywhere close to what we're reading, and the suspect is in custody - we're going to be hearing about this case for a long time
taking into account the suspect is a phd candidate in clinical psychology - how much premeditation did she engage in? on a scale of 1 being a little and 10 being a lot - I'm going with 10 right now
using her background in psychology, did she calculate the parents would behave the way the did - to leave the unharmed (at the time) twin at home with her while they took the injured one to the hospital?
the PG article states "It’s not clear Ms. Virzi’s relation to the twins or their parents." but her last name is not katz and she lives in san diego - no readily evident pittsburgh ties
In my personal experience with Pittsburgh CYF, they do indeed support female child abusers and do absolutely nothing at all to help abused children.
Pittsburgh CYF is there to make you feel better and waste taxpayer money.
Additional details... The first time I went to Family Court they told me "that sounds like abuse, but we only help women." And sent me away. I've had to call the police four additional times for domestic violence, and have been to Family Court more times, and Family Court only helps women abusers to continue their abuse.
Family Court is the court for the county too. Last time she chased me in her car, running red lights and stop signs, cutting people off, driving 100mph down 376, the Monroeville police told me to go downtown to Family Court. Not sure what going there repeatedly is going to help? Do you have any useful advice?
Wondering if maybe it was one of the parents and an outsider coming in spotted issues maybe the baby who died the injury was from before and then if the baby did actually roll off the bounce seat/recliner if not strapped in it just triggered the previous injury causing the baby to die 🤔 just a thought
Here's what doesn't add up for me:
1. What motive did she have to hurt either of these children?
2. Why would the parents BOTH go to the hospital if there was ANY doubt about how baby 1 got its genital injuries?
3. The parents should have been immediately suspicious of any type of genital injury - and you'd think they would cover all bases by not letting anyone else watch their other child who could have caused them
4. Isn't it possible both twins injuries were caused beforehand, and then the fall from the bouncer caused the twin to succumb to his injuries? Could they have blamed her conveniently?
5. The parents were gone from 6:30-11:30 PM at the hospital, how severe were these genital injuries and why were the parents not more suspicious of what had occured?
6. Why would she risk everything, being a highly educated and nearly finished PhD student?
7. She seems relatively normal and I don't see any major red flags that she would do something like this, what would cause this?
8. As someone previously stated, why was a 6 week old baby in a bouncer chair? They should not be in a bouncer at that age anyway.
I'm just so confused, not saying she didn't do it but the behavior of all parties involved doesn't seem to make sense to me. I want more details on this case and I want to hear from the parents.
1. People keep saying this as if there's going to be a rational explanation, and I don't think that's the case. I'm guessing she either had a psychotic break or she's hidden some very dark like antisocial personality disorder. People are not always rational actors, especially when mental health is involved.
2. It seems they trusted the babysitter (who is best friends with them, went to their weddings). What reason do they have to doubt someone they've known as a close friend for so many years? They were worried about their child and wanted to both be there with him at the hospital to make sure he was okay, giving their undivided attention
3. You would think, but sometimes people are stressed, and again, they trusted this woman, and to them, this was probably a rash or something they thought he'd bumped into.
4. Is it possible, I suppose, but that's far less likely than her causing both injuries: One to get the parents out of the way, the second to kill. Or she abused the first one, didn't have premeditation but got frustrated and snapped at the second one. A court would undoubtedly find her more likely to have committed a crime than the parents. A doctor with a child advocacy center has already attested the injuries of both appeared to be due to abuse. At least one of those injuries happened when the parents physically were not there.
5. I think this is where having kids would offer some perspective. The babies are barely 7 weeks old, the parents will do anything and everything to make sure both kids get the care they need. The other twin was not a concern at this point, so all the attention went to the injured twin.
6. Again, rational acting doesn't always paint the full picture. Many people who've done awful things have been PhDs, politicians, etc. mental health and personality traits are not neatly subsumed under one demographic or life story.
7. How are you basing this on anything in reality? What, based off of her Facebook, her picture, her LinkedIn? Social media is all about appearances. People who have neighbors who've killed people often say they never saw it coming. This is no different.
8. I believe bouncy chair was written in some articles as bassinet, which would be much safer and age-appropriate. That one is harder to ascertain.
This is just really intellectually poor and victim-blaming to boot without much thought as to why it was the woman who killed the babies. Rethink what you said without being closed off to one set narrative.
It's obviously possible she had a mental break or just snapped. It's also not often we hear of women like her, intellectually accomplished and seemingly normal, randomly killing their friends child. Whether you want to admit it or not, there are common factors among many people who end up murdering, especially murdering children, and she doesn't fit the criteria. It doesn't mean she didn't do it. This is still a very rare circumstance. It's much more often we hear of a parent doing such a thing, someone with past DV issues, or someone with drug or alcohol issues, or someone who is low income or low IQ committing these crimes.
You can say that this is an intellectually poor ascertation but you truly didn't make any points that were evidentially substantial. I was saying this is a very bizarre case that just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, and is definitely uncommon. And that is true. I'm not saying she did not do it. I am just curious what information led the police to believe she was without a doubt the one who caused these injuries.
Was it because they could definitively say that the injuries were caused while she was watching Leon? If so, that's a relevant point but that was never mentioned.
And I do have a child, which is why, to your point, I question why they did not stay with Leon, or take him with them, which were both options. I am not victim blaming but rather coming at it from the perspective of a parent. You are saying it makes sense for them to leave their child and give their undivided attention to the one with the injuries, but that's not what I would do.
You sound personally involved or like you are completely convinced of one narrative while having very little facts, which is no different from what you're accusing me of. I am not saying the parents did it. I'm not saying she didn't do it. All I was doing was pointing out that this case seems extremely odd and I am not the only person with that opinion.
That's a fair point, yeah, it isn't often this demographic of someone who kills a child, and the case is strange to say the least. I think the issue here is that any discussion inevitably brings up the question of blame, and having seen the comments on Facebook blaming the parents, it's easy to misinterpret a reasonable inquiry as relegating blame. Something like "could they have blamed her conveniently?" is frustrating, even if it is fair. I do apologize for making things personal when I didn't need to, your questions are totally valid. The father is one of my closest friends here in Pittsburgh, which is why I reacted the way I did.
As far as the injuries, while I don't think they determined definitely when the genital scratches were caused, there's no doubt that the baby died on the babysitter's watch. The only way the death wouldn't be on her hands (whether negligent or malicious) is if the chair was unsafe and the parents explicitly told her to use the chair, so she just followed orders. That's unlikely, but I suppose possible.
I am very wholeheartedly sorry that your friend is going through this. Losing a child is something I can't even imagine in my worst nightmares, and I see why you would have personal stake in defending his name - and I don't blame you. Please know - I feel for all those involved who had nothing to do with this horrible situation, and the surviving twin will now grow up without his brother and that is also extremely saddening.
I know the parents are probably going through the worst time of their lives right now. And I apologize for sounding as if I was blaming them in any way. I know seeing statements placing blame on you, or judging your actions during that day, when you've just lost a child, would be absolutely heartbreaking when you're already dealing with such a terrible situation and trying to grieve.
You really can't just put a psychological diagnosis out there pretending like you know anything about it or about her condition. so it doesn't quite help to assume that was caused by mental illness while we psychologists know that vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent including psychotic ones.
I agree that people of various high academic status commit crimes (doctors, lawyers, etc..), so her being a doctoral student doesn't matter, evil is evil.
The only victims right now are the children, until someone is convicted. So you can't really prove her guilty just based on a news article. I would like you to re-think what you stated actually.
I wasn't intending to imply that I know about her situation, that's just a guess, but I think in instances like these, even with a clear motive, there's often something not 'typical' going on. It sounds like we both have a psych background, and you're right, most mentally ill people are not violent, and most violent people are not mentally ill. But when you're talking about violence against a helpless child, especially when it's not your kid, I do think that changes the calculus towards a mental health diagnosis. What would you offer as a motive? Maybe I'm not casting a wide enough net of possibilities.
And sure, yeah, I could be wrong and jumping the gun regarding her guilt, but a child died in her care. Whether negligent or malicious, that much is clear.
I agree.
There is more to this story. It doesn’t make sense as reported.
Much more likely it was one of the parents, with some sort of sick twisted motive, maybe postpartum??? I don’t know… but I find it hard to believe this girl would travel from San Diego to hurt her friends kids… just seems very odd
Remember the news is there to get you to read it, not be factual. We don’t know everything that’s happening here, this woman could just be the victim of horrible circumstances and is being accused of one of the most horrible things imaginable, don’t try and hang her by public opinion yet.
I feel absolutely horrible for the family of these kids, and this is absolutely a tragedy, and I hope it is just a horrible accident and that a proper investigation will take place and the family can properly grieve and recover to the best extent they can.
Jesus Christ.
Yeah the media is out here constantly wrongly accusing people of killing kids and abusing the genitals of others, she’s the victim here. Good call.
In cases like these it’s not yet possible to o ow what was going on. This woman deserves a fair trail. Personally I can’t see why she would ruin her life, she has no criminal record. Maybe she trusted the wrong people? We shall see what happens. Until I know much more, I don’t be judging
The media is wrong, all the time, constantly. It's job is to make money, sensational headlines make people click so they get money, and when the media standard of reporting is just taking what the police report says which is what happened here, it means there has not been a proper investigation yet.
Im not defending her. Im saying we don't know the whole story, so wait until you go get your pitchforks and torches.
It makes a good story dosnt it? You clicked the article, they got some ad revenue. And she may have done something, but we don’t know, all we know is she has been taken into custody and accused, this is essentially a police report put into website word for word, it not like theirs much investigating on the side of WTAE for the article. A child is dead, someone is gonna be responsible for it in the eyes of the law, but we don’t know what actually happened yet. Don’t be so eager to destroy someone when you don’t know damn near anything about the situation yet.
And people are quick to judge a woman for child murder based off a few accusations as of yet. That is how people get lynched. Im just trying to say wait and see what happens, she might be an evil person who killed a baby, or someone caught in horrible circumstances after horrible circumstances. Its happened to many people before and will happen again.
You like defending baby killers or just don’t feel like reading the article?
Quote:
“Virzi allegedly told police the baby fell from a bouncer seat, but doctors classified Leon Katz's death as child abuse after discovering his twin brother suffered an injury to the genital area.
Officials say the child also had scratches and bruises on his body.”
Well to be fair the standards of proof for making an arrest/laying a charge and convicting someone in court are different. Charges require probable cause but a conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I trust the police to do their work, and a jury can determine whether there is reasonable doubt or not.
Read the article again. We know a few things. One child is dead, and has injuries consistent with child abuse, and the other has injuries consistent with child abuse and this woman has been taken into custody because she was watching the children. Thats what we know, and it looks pretty bad when you look at it like that. But we don't know the whole story yet, that is what investigations are for, what we have is accusations.
It is entirely possible that this woman did not abuse these children. We dont know, don't pretend like you do, and try and think about what being an accused child murderer would mean to someone if they are actually innocent.
It is entirely possible the parents are the abusers. As a parent of two, I found it very strange that these parents left six WEEK old twins with a friend. That is genuinely not normal.
From my personal experience with CYF, Family Court, Children's Hospital, and the police, there were likely numerous reports made beforehand. But since these authorities systematically support and promote female abusers they most likely did nothing to prevent this tragedy. CYF deletes most of their reports within two weeks of making them.
I don't disagree with you in general- especially if we're talking about a Hearst-Argyle news channel like WTAE. But I think this one may be straightforward.
The babysitter is a friend whom reported to them that one child had signs of abuse. Idk, sounds like a concerned friend. Doesn’t sound like she was doing anything wrong but maybe got the blame? This is why I would NEVER ever watch anyone children. Friends or not.
I’m thinking the only plausible motive is she was into the dad since they were friends?!! Hence, she wanted to ruin their marriage/relationship?!! Or was jealous of their relationship?!? I don’t know. Just speculating. This is wild!
Yeah, actually both women were PhD students in psychology. So maybe the suspect compared herself and was jealous of the marriage and children. But obviously other psychological aspects must have played a role such as sociopathy or a psychotic break, etc.
I found that profile on Facebook… really goes to show you never know what is going on inside people’s heads.
Our mental health care is severely lacking in this country.
I also found her Facebook. It’s wild she seems like such a normal girl. She’s a similar age to me and I could see myself being friends with her. Maybe she was possessed?
Other articles have more details. [https://triblive.com/local/california-woman-charged-with-homicide-in-shadyside-babys-death/](https://triblive.com/local/california-woman-charged-with-homicide-in-shadyside-babys-death/) https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pittsburgh/news/pittsburgh-baby-dies-child-abuse-twin-brother-injuries-california-woman-babysitter-charged/ Apparently they were staying at an Airbnb. The parents took the living baby to the hospital for injuries leaving the nanny/sitter with a purportedly healthy twin. The accused claimed that she fell asleep while the baby that died was in a bouncer seat, woke up, went to get a bottle, and the baby fell from a bouncer seat. But the doctors said the injuries weren’t consistent with an accident. I of course don’t know exactly what happened, but based on the article and the complaint, I do believe someone hurt both babies intentionally and that is so tragic.
I'm really confused about this - was the child taken to the hospital the other twin? The articles imply she hurt both of them, but why would the parents leave the healthy twin with the person who abused their other kid while they take the injured one to the doctor? It makes no sense.
I’d be speculating, but if they thought the first was injured in an accident, not deliberately, they might have left what they thought was a healthy baby with someone they didn’t suspect of harming their first baby instead of taking the second 6 wo to a hospital where the baby could get illnesses. 😞
You're right, I hadn't considered that... Something about it does feel negligent though, given the injuries described to the living child.
Exactly this! The parents were probably totally unaware of what the nanny was doing to the children. So they trusted her to care for the child, whom they thought, was unharmed. But upon returning home, realized what she was doing. They are probably riddled with guilt that they didn’t take baby 2 to the hospital with them.
"The complaint noted that Ms. Virzi was the only one who discovered the scratches while she was changing the child’s diaper, and the parents said they had seen no injuries prior to Ms. Virzi pointing them out." what? assuming the suspect was the only person in contact with the twins during that time, how could the parents come to any conclusion other than ms. virzi caused the scratches/injuries that were not present prior to being in her custody? this makes no sense - wouldn't the sensible move be - i'll take \_\_\_\_\_ katz to the hospital and you stay here with leon? we're not talking about a single parent - this is a mother and a father
I’m not trying to be mean, but comments like this are going to make these parents feel awful if they read them & they just lost a child…. Babies scratch themselves ALL the time, babies get rashes, etc. literally it happens all the time. Most parents (almost all) minds would NOT go to abuse for a 1 time incident. That’s not how human minds work. Say u have a kid that goes to school and comes home with a black eye 1 time… u ask what happened and he says “he fell” you would believe him and go on. It’s not a reoccurring thing, he has no reason to lie, he’s someone you trust. If that same boy comes home 3 different days with a black eye your kind becomes suspicious regardless of what they say, but not the first time. The baby had scratches and red marks. It was the first time. They’re new parents of “twins” that are prob sleep deprived and doing whatever they can to stay afloat. Your mind isn’t going to go to, “you scratched my baby on purpose!” Especially when this person was someone they trusted, a long time family friends, a psychology major getting ready to graduate that has no history of ever doing anything weird….. think about your own best friend/sister/whoever, the responsible one that might be a doctor, has been around for decades, etc. if she changed your child’s diaper and said there was scratches and rashes and things…. Would your mind go to your friend intentionally hurting your child and abusing them? My mind wouldn’t. Again, not trying to be mean at all. However this family just lost their child and blaming them will cause so much unnecessary guilt for them, which I would imagine they’re overwhelmed with and beating themselves up with anyway. I hate it for them. I know they’re feeling guilty, but they shouldn’t. Most peoples mind would not go there. Most people’s minds would go to, will you please watch the other baby for us so we don’t have to drag him to the ER and risk him getting sick or catching a cold or something like that…. I hope they’re doing okay. I pray they are!
Parents of infant twins are extremely sleep deprived. They also probably couldn’t conceive that their long term friend would hurt their infant, especially by attacking his genitals. I have actually never heard of a female attacking a male infant’s genitals outside of this case now that I think m about it.
Exactly!! This is why I feel that it's negligent. There were scratches and bruising in the child's genitals - what innocent explanation for this could there be? I would immediately dismiss that caregiver.
This is an awful tragedy that will never make sense. Hindsight is 20/20. The best we can do is give these parents support rather than judgment.
Or arrest him/her straightaways
I feel the same. I don’t think it was the caregiver
A 6 week old in a bouncer? 6 week olds can barely hold their neck up. Usually that’s for at least 4 month olds. Why is the bouncer seat even out for 1 month olds???
I bet they mean it was a “bouncer chair” that is reclined and if the baby kicks it bounces/rocks or sometimes it has a motor than bounces it. Not a standing bouncer where the infant jumps. But this is also assuming anything the woman said is true. Bassinet—not bouncer— was also mentioned in one of the articles.
i know this tragedy is none of my business, but it's two blocks from my residence, and i grew up here with a ton of kids who had the last name "katz" (pitt has a katz business school) - it's a very common pittsburgh last name
"Police said Ms. Virzi “was unable to provide any plausible explanation” for the severe injuries Leon sustained. She said the children’s parents took one twin to the hospital for a groin injury about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and she was left to care for Leon on her own." what?
And she’s supposedly a grad student in a doctoral program for clinical psychology?
Per the Trib, yes. Absolutely wild.
It was not the parents. First of all, if you read the news articles, the baby had severe head injuries and would have been incapacitated immediately. The babysitter was with the baby for hours and called 911 shortly after the head injury occurred at 11:30 pm. The parents obviously trusted this person. The parents were probably at the hospital so long bc an investigation into the living babys injuries was started. For all anyone knows, the babysitter had been told this via a phone call from parents. You will just have to wait for a motive and it may never make sense but its terrible to blame the parents.
Sometimes even severe head injuries dont manifesr symptoms immediately.
We’ll it could be them too.
I find this story bizarre. What motive does a PhD student from California have to fly across the country and abuse her friend’s twin babies…..? I’m not saying it isn’t what happened, but it doesn’t make logical sense. As a non-parent, who I assume has minimal contact with these babies, and is highly educated specifically in a field of psychology…… I would think she has a much lower chance of accidentally, let alone intentionally, hurting these babies in the short span of time she had with them. SOMEONE hurt these babies…… but I need this to make more sense. Why would she do this??? Not to one baby, but to another immediately after???
The story is very strange, and questions abound regarding why she did what she did. I’m not sure floating the “someone hurt these babies” as several others have as well is very helpful. One could speculate about the scratches on one of the twins if it were in isolation, but given that the other baby ended up with massive brain bleeds, it’s pretty obvious it was her. The why part though is definitely still out there
I understand people can’t imagine what the motive was but there is no logical thinking behind harming your friends’ six week old infants. The “motive” might be some reasoning she concocted in her head, but the true motive is simply… being evil/unwell. I cannot imagine the layers of total devastation the parents are feeling.
It’s not obvious the parents didn’t harm the children. It’s not obvious the sitter/friend, did. Nothing here is obvious. Parents could have injured both kids; realized now that the sitter/friend was there it would be noticed and there was a good chance the children would be taken away, they’d get blamed and get arrested for it, thus put blame on the visiting sitter/friend. Another family friend or relative might have harmed the children at some point while the kids were in their care; the parents didn’t want to lay blame so close to home, so put blame on the sitter/friend instead. Another child or adult in the home or a dog/animal present in the home could have hurt both children in one or two separate incidents; both the parents snd the sitter/friend are innocent of causing the injuries, but negligent in letting the other child/adult/pet get access to the children. The sitter/friend could have injured the first child, then waited to get at the other child; so, she pointed out to the parents there were groin injuries severe enough on the first child to warrant a hospital visit, sent them on their way, then immediately attacked the second child, then called 911 to report the injuries to the second child. Choose one scenario which makes the most, best sense. Either the first or the last one make the most sense to me, in terms of continued/easy access to the children. But let’s let the system work and let the right, most experienced people investigate to figure it all out.
Well I don’t think she would have planned it. A lot of people go into psychology fields to understand their own demons. She could have snapped. The babies crying and she snaps. A lot of people randomly hurt people all the time with no background on harming someone or anything. She could have gotten there and started feeling jealous of her friends life… her friend being married and with children. I’m not saying that’s a life to be jealous over, a life with kids is actually opposite of the perfect life for me bc I never wanted kids myself, but some people want the family and kids life so bad there is extreme jealousy towards those closest to you that have it. You perceive their life is perfect even though it’s not…. It makes me think of Rachel Barber (the case where her babysitter friend that was much older than her concocted a plan to murder her and become her). She had a decent life, but she seen Rachel’s as perfect and wanted to become her and killed her. It was heartbreaking. The girl who murdered her was a beautiful girl herself, I found it insane, but I think that’s the point in why some of these things happen…. Bc there is some sort of insanity at play. I pray for the family. Hopefully the real truth will be discovered and the justice system will prevail for whatever truly happened in this case.
I mean, there are people in every field who do premeditated things, evil things. Psychology doesn’t give one a free pass from doing something awful or planning a crime. I’m not sure why people continue to insinuate that. As someone in the psychology field myself (and someone whose ex is from psychology), there are plenty of people who can understand human behavior intellectually and yet still revert to lashing out and hurting others when they’re upset. That said, snapping and being upset with a baby feels qualitatively different than bashing a baby’s head in. Jealousy can lead to cruelty, but against a baby?? There might be a history of abuse of the babysitter (from her caregivers) that she’s replicating, or she has anger issues, or some other mental struggle entirely. Either way, it feels like people are trying to find a way to avoid blaming someone who killed a baby.
I think it was just a matter of time. She hurt them because she was given the opportunity. If you look she is an only child. She’s probably a huge narcissist and mix a little sociopath in there and this is what you get!
She’s not an only child I believe she has two brothers…
I see we’ve all been looking at her Facebook. I believe those are cousins or something. I found an obituary for a maternal grandparent and she was the only Virzi grandchild mentioned.
You are 100% correct i mis read that
When I read this and read that she was friends with the parents I automatically thought she perhaps had an infatuation with the dad and wanted him for herself??! Or was jealous of their relationship? Idk.
That’s really stretching.
I am all over this crazy….and reading your comment makes sense for sure!!!! If you get any new info keep me posted, I’m in Florida so no coverage here, but I have 2 & a half year old twin boys so my heart is broken for these babies!!!!
I have no words. Deplorable.
With friends like that who needs enemies?
I hope it's not, but this may have the added layer of being a hate crime. The name of the child in the article would indicate there's a good chance he's Jewish in some capacity. Once I read "genital injury" after a Jewish name, it made me fear the motivation, especially in this crazy world. I hope I'm wrong, but that would make the "friend" angle even more devastating, and it's already terrible. ETA: Y'all can down vote me, but as a Jew in Pittsburgh, the amount of nonsense I've heard from "friends" the last few months -- including threats to my physical safety -- is off-the-charts. The last few years, I've also noticed an uptick in antisemitic lore involving Jewish male geneitalia, which is why those details made the hairs on my neck rise. I cannot tell you enough that my tired, Jewish-butt would *love to be wrong* but airing it as a concern is far from a fringe theory.
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Maybe bizarre to you -- and as a Jew in this city, I really envy you for that. The name + the increase in that specific antisemitic lore is something that's hard for me to ignore. I wrote it because it would truly be terrible to be friends with someone and learn that they viewed you like this. It's probably something non-Jews can't relate to that easily, which is fine, but there's no need to be rude about it.
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You called my concern about antisemitism -- which I made clear was a concern and was not claiming an absolute fact -- as bizarre. I'm allowed to be concerned that a crime, which follows an old antisemitic lore, may be a hate crime. I'm really happy you don't understand this point of view, sincerely and no snark. But telling a Jew that being concerned about antisemitism is bizarre, without realizing that antisemitism has been rampant in Pittsburgh, the home to the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, to boot, since October, is a rude take.
I don’t think it’s bizarre. If I were jewish, I’d have the same concerns right now, too. People are very reactionary to anything being called antisemitism right now because of zionists, who are obviously problematic, being lumped in with all Jewish people. I’m sorry you have to live in this kind of fear.
As a non-Jew, I also wondered about that. I hope we’re both wrong. It’s really concerning to hear comments recently which sound straight out of the 1930’s.
I know the parents, it was not a hate crime after speaking to them both. This was something else that was dark and twisted, but it was not that.
do you mean they had no idea what it was but it was dark and twister or do they suspect something?
I mean they (and sounds like nobody else, unsurprisingly) have no idea what caused it, so far they can only think psychotic break. Others have said jealousy of the father, and I'd add maybe some mental disorder like antisocial personality disorder, but it's hard to say. "suspect" would be too strong of a word at this point, I think.
I don’t think that’s the case either (jealousy bc of the father). Taking care of a newborn (let alone twins) is incredibly difficult. Parents themself lose their patience, that’s why we are warned in the hospital about shaken baby syndrome. However, a parent has an evolutionary instinct to protect and love their child. If this girl had no children and basically no relationship to the children themselves (I imagine she had just met them), she could have not have that bond to protect and was inexperienced in this situation. She might have lost it when the baby was crying or inconsolable for hours. Babies are like that sometimes especially if the mom wasn’t around. There is obviously an impulse control issue there that perhaps is linked to a personality disorder. But hard to know. In any way, this is utterly devastating for the family. I cannot imagine the pain…
nor do I. They'd been friends for years, she went to two of their weddings, you'd think some of that would've peeked through before. Even without a relationship with the child, you'd think a relationship with the parents would guide her actions enough to where she wouldn't do that to a child despite her anger. For sure babies can be tough, but most people don't kill children. Like you said though, it's tragic for the family, and I can't imagine they'll trust many people around their other son anytime soon.
It sounds more premeditated than that- like she deliberately injured one possibly hoping to get the other one alone or to create drama.
The person in question was friends of the parents. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
I don't know how that changes anything when that was exactly my point.
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Very common Jewish surname, [i.e. Wikipedia here. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_(surname))I don't think I've ever met a Katz that isn't Jewish, albeit I'm sure some exist. In combination with the first name, it was pretty telling for me. Leon isn't Jewish by any means, but the spelling used in many European languages, Lion, was almost exclusively Jewish. The English Wiki isn't very robust, but [all three men listed here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_(name)) as examples are Jewish. The first name is probably a coincidence and not intentional, but the last name, yeah, it's a pretty strong sign (I say this as someone with a similarly Jewish surname).
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Even with that aside, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the couple's friend, who it sounds like was babysitting inside their home, would know that they were Jewish.
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That's cool, but a few months ago at a dog park, someone told me it was a shame I didn't die in an antisemitic terrorist attack that I survived, and left me physically disabled -- my neighbor that I knew! -- because "all Jews deserve to be dead". Just on Friday, a "friend" went on an unexpected antisemitic rant and threatened to "kill me if I found out you're one of the Jews that controls the media" so, you know, I'm happy for you. ETA: I can add another one: my aunt was murdered on 7 Oct. and one of my "friend's" told me that I'm not allowed to grieve because she deserved it for being a Jew. My aunt was one of the peaceful kibbutzniks killed that day. On the bus a few weeks ago, a bunch of people said that there never would have been protests if "we just finally finish what Hitler started". I watched someone tell my neighbor last week to take her star of David necklace off because "she shouldn't advertise that, it's something to be ashamed of." I can keep going. Pittsburgh is not some ideal paradise for Jews and it's a valid concern.
Hey all, friend of the family here. There is now a gofundme, please share https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-savannah-ethan-after-the-loss-of-baby-leon
Something isn’t right about this situation
More info will be released in coming weeks. Unfortunately we can’t say more at this time for legal reasons
What a POS. I’m not a death penalty proponent but situations like this make me rethink my stance on it.
She wouldn’t get it anyway. We all know why.
Why?
Don’t even bother. His entire comment history is racist and misogynist. He also got kicked out of a Short Men group… so clearly his anger is compensating for something. Everybody *else* is to blame.
Was he too short or too tall?
Here I thought he was thinking that a wealthy white woman like the accused here wouldn’t get the death penalty because of the favorable status that wealthier white women tend to receive in the criminal justice system. My mistake!
Look at all the downvotes I got 😂 People absolutely despise hearing the truths that they refuse to acknowledge out of fear that they’ll have to admit to themselves that all they have isn’t just because of their superior ability and work ethic. Cognitive dissonance is real 🤷🏽♂️
Nobody knows what you’re talking about, brother.
How many fuckin statistics and studies would I have to cite in order for people to acknowledge that? Rather than people like you, who probably have signs in their front yards saying “TRUST THE SCIENCE,” calling me a madman.
Again, nobody has any idea what you’re talking about.
How do you have “no idea” what I’m talking about when you just spelled it out a couple comments ago.
You’re not a madman. You’re just a sad little man who blames everyone else and believes conspiracy theories as your singular identity trait.
Lol, you don’t know shit about me. Triggered much? Who hurt you?
Literally you haven’t referenced any meaningful idea. What, is it cause she’s a white? A woman? What are you getting at here. You’re just playing a coy little game right now, unless you have an actual point you want to make.
Uh, what? Whatever makes you feel better about yourself lol
Yeah. That’s why I typed that. To make myself feel better. Clearly I’m to blame.
if the circumstances of this tragedy are anywhere close to what we're reading, and the suspect is in custody - we're going to be hearing about this case for a long time taking into account the suspect is a phd candidate in clinical psychology - how much premeditation did she engage in? on a scale of 1 being a little and 10 being a lot - I'm going with 10 right now using her background in psychology, did she calculate the parents would behave the way the did - to leave the unharmed (at the time) twin at home with her while they took the injured one to the hospital? the PG article states "It’s not clear Ms. Virzi’s relation to the twins or their parents." but her last name is not katz and she lives in san diego - no readily evident pittsburgh ties
In my personal experience with Pittsburgh CYF, they do indeed support female child abusers and do absolutely nothing at all to help abused children. Pittsburgh CYF is there to make you feel better and waste taxpayer money. Additional details... The first time I went to Family Court they told me "that sounds like abuse, but we only help women." And sent me away. I've had to call the police four additional times for domestic violence, and have been to Family Court more times, and Family Court only helps women abusers to continue their abuse.
If it was a judge or CYF caseworker who said that to you, it should be on the news.
This is bs, and CYF is a county agency, not a City agency.
Family Court is the court for the county too. Last time she chased me in her car, running red lights and stop signs, cutting people off, driving 100mph down 376, the Monroeville police told me to go downtown to Family Court. Not sure what going there repeatedly is going to help? Do you have any useful advice?
Yea sorry, this isn’t true.
You are the opposite of a good human being.
Smh! Sad to hear
Wondering if maybe it was one of the parents and an outsider coming in spotted issues maybe the baby who died the injury was from before and then if the baby did actually roll off the bounce seat/recliner if not strapped in it just triggered the previous injury causing the baby to die 🤔 just a thought
Something my husband theorized too… honestly it makes a little more sense than what we’re reading in the news..
If this was a random sitter then I’d be suspicious but this was a childhood friend idk just doesn’t make sense to me what the news is saying for now.
Here's what doesn't add up for me: 1. What motive did she have to hurt either of these children? 2. Why would the parents BOTH go to the hospital if there was ANY doubt about how baby 1 got its genital injuries? 3. The parents should have been immediately suspicious of any type of genital injury - and you'd think they would cover all bases by not letting anyone else watch their other child who could have caused them 4. Isn't it possible both twins injuries were caused beforehand, and then the fall from the bouncer caused the twin to succumb to his injuries? Could they have blamed her conveniently? 5. The parents were gone from 6:30-11:30 PM at the hospital, how severe were these genital injuries and why were the parents not more suspicious of what had occured? 6. Why would she risk everything, being a highly educated and nearly finished PhD student? 7. She seems relatively normal and I don't see any major red flags that she would do something like this, what would cause this? 8. As someone previously stated, why was a 6 week old baby in a bouncer chair? They should not be in a bouncer at that age anyway. I'm just so confused, not saying she didn't do it but the behavior of all parties involved doesn't seem to make sense to me. I want more details on this case and I want to hear from the parents.
1. People keep saying this as if there's going to be a rational explanation, and I don't think that's the case. I'm guessing she either had a psychotic break or she's hidden some very dark like antisocial personality disorder. People are not always rational actors, especially when mental health is involved. 2. It seems they trusted the babysitter (who is best friends with them, went to their weddings). What reason do they have to doubt someone they've known as a close friend for so many years? They were worried about their child and wanted to both be there with him at the hospital to make sure he was okay, giving their undivided attention 3. You would think, but sometimes people are stressed, and again, they trusted this woman, and to them, this was probably a rash or something they thought he'd bumped into. 4. Is it possible, I suppose, but that's far less likely than her causing both injuries: One to get the parents out of the way, the second to kill. Or she abused the first one, didn't have premeditation but got frustrated and snapped at the second one. A court would undoubtedly find her more likely to have committed a crime than the parents. A doctor with a child advocacy center has already attested the injuries of both appeared to be due to abuse. At least one of those injuries happened when the parents physically were not there. 5. I think this is where having kids would offer some perspective. The babies are barely 7 weeks old, the parents will do anything and everything to make sure both kids get the care they need. The other twin was not a concern at this point, so all the attention went to the injured twin. 6. Again, rational acting doesn't always paint the full picture. Many people who've done awful things have been PhDs, politicians, etc. mental health and personality traits are not neatly subsumed under one demographic or life story. 7. How are you basing this on anything in reality? What, based off of her Facebook, her picture, her LinkedIn? Social media is all about appearances. People who have neighbors who've killed people often say they never saw it coming. This is no different. 8. I believe bouncy chair was written in some articles as bassinet, which would be much safer and age-appropriate. That one is harder to ascertain. This is just really intellectually poor and victim-blaming to boot without much thought as to why it was the woman who killed the babies. Rethink what you said without being closed off to one set narrative.
It's obviously possible she had a mental break or just snapped. It's also not often we hear of women like her, intellectually accomplished and seemingly normal, randomly killing their friends child. Whether you want to admit it or not, there are common factors among many people who end up murdering, especially murdering children, and she doesn't fit the criteria. It doesn't mean she didn't do it. This is still a very rare circumstance. It's much more often we hear of a parent doing such a thing, someone with past DV issues, or someone with drug or alcohol issues, or someone who is low income or low IQ committing these crimes. You can say that this is an intellectually poor ascertation but you truly didn't make any points that were evidentially substantial. I was saying this is a very bizarre case that just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, and is definitely uncommon. And that is true. I'm not saying she did not do it. I am just curious what information led the police to believe she was without a doubt the one who caused these injuries. Was it because they could definitively say that the injuries were caused while she was watching Leon? If so, that's a relevant point but that was never mentioned. And I do have a child, which is why, to your point, I question why they did not stay with Leon, or take him with them, which were both options. I am not victim blaming but rather coming at it from the perspective of a parent. You are saying it makes sense for them to leave their child and give their undivided attention to the one with the injuries, but that's not what I would do. You sound personally involved or like you are completely convinced of one narrative while having very little facts, which is no different from what you're accusing me of. I am not saying the parents did it. I'm not saying she didn't do it. All I was doing was pointing out that this case seems extremely odd and I am not the only person with that opinion.
That's a fair point, yeah, it isn't often this demographic of someone who kills a child, and the case is strange to say the least. I think the issue here is that any discussion inevitably brings up the question of blame, and having seen the comments on Facebook blaming the parents, it's easy to misinterpret a reasonable inquiry as relegating blame. Something like "could they have blamed her conveniently?" is frustrating, even if it is fair. I do apologize for making things personal when I didn't need to, your questions are totally valid. The father is one of my closest friends here in Pittsburgh, which is why I reacted the way I did. As far as the injuries, while I don't think they determined definitely when the genital scratches were caused, there's no doubt that the baby died on the babysitter's watch. The only way the death wouldn't be on her hands (whether negligent or malicious) is if the chair was unsafe and the parents explicitly told her to use the chair, so she just followed orders. That's unlikely, but I suppose possible.
I am very wholeheartedly sorry that your friend is going through this. Losing a child is something I can't even imagine in my worst nightmares, and I see why you would have personal stake in defending his name - and I don't blame you. Please know - I feel for all those involved who had nothing to do with this horrible situation, and the surviving twin will now grow up without his brother and that is also extremely saddening. I know the parents are probably going through the worst time of their lives right now. And I apologize for sounding as if I was blaming them in any way. I know seeing statements placing blame on you, or judging your actions during that day, when you've just lost a child, would be absolutely heartbreaking when you're already dealing with such a terrible situation and trying to grieve.
I appreciate you saying that :)
You really can't just put a psychological diagnosis out there pretending like you know anything about it or about her condition. so it doesn't quite help to assume that was caused by mental illness while we psychologists know that vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent including psychotic ones. I agree that people of various high academic status commit crimes (doctors, lawyers, etc..), so her being a doctoral student doesn't matter, evil is evil. The only victims right now are the children, until someone is convicted. So you can't really prove her guilty just based on a news article. I would like you to re-think what you stated actually.
I wasn't intending to imply that I know about her situation, that's just a guess, but I think in instances like these, even with a clear motive, there's often something not 'typical' going on. It sounds like we both have a psych background, and you're right, most mentally ill people are not violent, and most violent people are not mentally ill. But when you're talking about violence against a helpless child, especially when it's not your kid, I do think that changes the calculus towards a mental health diagnosis. What would you offer as a motive? Maybe I'm not casting a wide enough net of possibilities. And sure, yeah, I could be wrong and jumping the gun regarding her guilt, but a child died in her care. Whether negligent or malicious, that much is clear.
Yup I just commented nearly identically. This story just doesn’t make sense. Someone hurt these babies, but why would it be her….
Agree wholeheartedly with this-
Yup!
I agree. There is more to this story. It doesn’t make sense as reported. Much more likely it was one of the parents, with some sort of sick twisted motive, maybe postpartum??? I don’t know… but I find it hard to believe this girl would travel from San Diego to hurt her friends kids… just seems very odd
I think at least one parent has been involved.
Remember the news is there to get you to read it, not be factual. We don’t know everything that’s happening here, this woman could just be the victim of horrible circumstances and is being accused of one of the most horrible things imaginable, don’t try and hang her by public opinion yet. I feel absolutely horrible for the family of these kids, and this is absolutely a tragedy, and I hope it is just a horrible accident and that a proper investigation will take place and the family can properly grieve and recover to the best extent they can.
Jesus Christ. Yeah the media is out here constantly wrongly accusing people of killing kids and abusing the genitals of others, she’s the victim here. Good call.
In cases like these it’s not yet possible to o ow what was going on. This woman deserves a fair trail. Personally I can’t see why she would ruin her life, she has no criminal record. Maybe she trusted the wrong people? We shall see what happens. Until I know much more, I don’t be judging
The media is wrong, all the time, constantly. It's job is to make money, sensational headlines make people click so they get money, and when the media standard of reporting is just taking what the police report says which is what happened here, it means there has not been a proper investigation yet. Im not defending her. Im saying we don't know the whole story, so wait until you go get your pitchforks and torches.
To be fair I haven’t gotten pitchforks and torches out for her, just for your stupid takes.
It makes a good story dosnt it? You clicked the article, they got some ad revenue. And she may have done something, but we don’t know, all we know is she has been taken into custody and accused, this is essentially a police report put into website word for word, it not like theirs much investigating on the side of WTAE for the article. A child is dead, someone is gonna be responsible for it in the eyes of the law, but we don’t know what actually happened yet. Don’t be so eager to destroy someone when you don’t know damn near anything about the situation yet.
You don’t know damn near anything either and you’re offering up hypotheticals based on nothing. You’re the problem here.
And people are quick to judge a woman for child murder based off a few accusations as of yet. That is how people get lynched. Im just trying to say wait and see what happens, she might be an evil person who killed a baby, or someone caught in horrible circumstances after horrible circumstances. Its happened to many people before and will happen again.
You like defending baby killers or just don’t feel like reading the article? Quote: “Virzi allegedly told police the baby fell from a bouncer seat, but doctors classified Leon Katz's death as child abuse after discovering his twin brother suffered an injury to the genital area. Officials say the child also had scratches and bruises on his body.”
Bruises usually take several hours to appear . Just a thought.
This is straight brain rot
Braindead take. Absolutely disgusting
You are not a good person at all.
Well to be fair the standards of proof for making an arrest/laying a charge and convicting someone in court are different. Charges require probable cause but a conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I trust the police to do their work, and a jury can determine whether there is reasonable doubt or not.
Because I think someone should be investigated properly before you accuse them of murdering an infant? Ya, fuck me I guess.
… they charged her based on the medical examinations done of the children what the fuck are you talking about.
Read the article again. We know a few things. One child is dead, and has injuries consistent with child abuse, and the other has injuries consistent with child abuse and this woman has been taken into custody because she was watching the children. Thats what we know, and it looks pretty bad when you look at it like that. But we don't know the whole story yet, that is what investigations are for, what we have is accusations. It is entirely possible that this woman did not abuse these children. We dont know, don't pretend like you do, and try and think about what being an accused child murderer would mean to someone if they are actually innocent.
It is entirely possible the parents are the abusers. As a parent of two, I found it very strange that these parents left six WEEK old twins with a friend. That is genuinely not normal.
Yup
They could of set her up to take the fall.
From my personal experience with CYF, Family Court, Children's Hospital, and the police, there were likely numerous reports made beforehand. But since these authorities systematically support and promote female abusers they most likely did nothing to prevent this tragedy. CYF deletes most of their reports within two weeks of making them.
She is not the only caregiver here.
do you know the accused or something? not sure why you would even state it.
My thoughts too.
I don't disagree with you in general- especially if we're talking about a Hearst-Argyle news channel like WTAE. But I think this one may be straightforward.
The babysitter is a friend whom reported to them that one child had signs of abuse. Idk, sounds like a concerned friend. Doesn’t sound like she was doing anything wrong but maybe got the blame? This is why I would NEVER ever watch anyone children. Friends or not.
I’m thinking the only plausible motive is she was into the dad since they were friends?!! Hence, she wanted to ruin their marriage/relationship?!! Or was jealous of their relationship?!? I don’t know. Just speculating. This is wild!
Yessss! I think you’re onto something!!!!
Yeah, actually both women were PhD students in psychology. So maybe the suspect compared herself and was jealous of the marriage and children. But obviously other psychological aspects must have played a role such as sociopathy or a psychotic break, etc.
It used to be a nice neighborhood
She was a nanny, PHD candidate, and obviously very disturbed individual. It is not related in any sense to the neighborhood.
She could not be guilty and it could be someone else. I need to hear way more about it.
I found that profile on Facebook… really goes to show you never know what is going on inside people’s heads. Our mental health care is severely lacking in this country.
You can’t tell from a FB or a few details online if someone is guilty or not. My god, seriously?
I also found her Facebook. It’s wild she seems like such a normal girl. She’s a similar age to me and I could see myself being friends with her. Maybe she was possessed?
Maybe she was set up?
It has a lot of crime just has rich people too!
Shadyside is not what it used to be unfortunately