East Syracuse woman pleads not guilty in stabbing of nieces

BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) - A grand jury will consider whether to indict a woman accused of stabbing her young nieces while she was baby-sitting.

Defense attorney Jeanne Mettler said Friday that prosecutors have 45 days to make their case against 39-year-old Lisa Turkki before a Westchester County grand jury.

Turkki, of East Syracuse, is charged with assault. She allegedly stabbed her 7- and 9-year-old nieces on July 31 at their home in Katonah, across the street from Martha Stewart's estate. The girls survived.

No motive has been mentioned.

At a hearing Thursday night in Bedford Town Court, Mettler waived Turkki's right to a felony hearing. That prevents prosecutors from outlining their case in public at the hearing.

Turkki is receiving psychiatric care in prison.

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. (AP) - A woman accused of repeatedly stabbing two young nieces in their home across the street from Martha Stewart's estate trembled Thursday as she appeared before a judge but did not enter a plea.

The assault case against Lisa Turkki, 39, of East Syracuse, was postponed until Sept. 16. She remains jailed without bail.

The girls, Maeve Kelly, 7, and Annabel Kelly, 9, of Katonah, were repeatedly slashed with kitchen knives Saturday night while Turkki was baby-sitting them as their parents, Joseph and Eva Kelly, attended a concert. The girls are recovering in the hospital.

Turkki, her hands cuffed and her feet shackled, did not speak in court, but she trembled throughout her appearance. There was no discussion of motive or evidence.

Town Justice Erik Jacobsen revealed that four orders of protection had been issued, apparently for the girls and their parents. He said Turkki was taking prescription medicine, but he did not elaborate.

There were apparently no family members at the session in Bedford Town Court.

Turkki, who has bachelor's and master's degrees from Syracuse University, had been a volunteer with ARISE, a Syracuse-based group that aids the disabled, from 2001 to 2004. Turkki lives on Summer Haven Drive near the Links at Erie Village golf course.

Defense attorney Jeanne Mettler said afterward that the case was "very serious and very sensitive." He would not comment further.

Prosecutor Heidi Mason also would not comment.

Katonah, a hamlet within Bedford, is about 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

KATONAH, N.Y. (AP/WSYR-TV) - An East Syracuse woman who was baby-sitting her two nieces stabbed them repeatedly with kitchen knives, then called 911 from the upscale home across the street from Martha Stewart's estate, police said Monday.

The 7- and 9-year-old girls survived the Saturday night attack and Sunday surgery and were in stable condition and improving on Monday, police said.

Bedford police Lt. Jeffrey Dickan described the scene as "quite horrible."

"There was a lot of blood in the kitchen area," he said.

The girls were both conscious and talking when they were found, the lieutenant said, and two bloodied kitchen knives were recovered. He would not describe the girls' wounds.

Lisa Turkki of East Syracuse, the girls' aunt and their mother's sister, sustained a minor injury to her leg that was possibly self-inflicted, Dickan said. She was outside the house when police arrived and was immediately arrested.

Dickan declined to discuss a possible motive or Turkki's mental state. He also declined to reveal what Turkki said during the 911 call or in other statements to police.

Turkki was arraigned on two counts of assault and was ordered held without bail at the Westchester County Jail. She had no attorney of record as of Monday, and a phone message left at her home was not immediately returned. She is scheduled to appear in Bedford Town Court on Thursday.

Turkki voluntarily submitted to urine and blood tests and did not seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Dickan said.

Katonah, a hamlet within Bedford, is about 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan. The area is wooded, with houses far apart and shielded from the road by mature trees and shrubs. The girls and their parents live in a modern wooden house known in the neighborhood for its green technology.

On Monday morning, the only activity outside the house was men pruning trees. The house has lovely gardens, a stone wall and shares a driveway with another house. On Stewart's estate, a woman could be seen riding a horse while workers weeded the lawn outside the estate's stone wall.

On Saturday, Turkki was watching the girls while their parents were attending a concert at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a popular summertime music venue within walking distance of the house, Dickan said. The parents were called to the box office during intermission and told to return home. By the time they got there, the girls had been taken to the hospital, he said.

The lieutenant said he did not know whether Turkki had ever baby-sat the girls before.

"It's like a worst nightmare for a parent," said neighbor Heather Flournoy, who writes a blog on green living and in 2008 wrote about the family's use of green technology in their home.

She said the girls had recently called her to tell her "they had baby chicks and they were going to raise chickens."

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Associated Press writer Chris Carola in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

KATONAH -(WSYR-TV/AP) – An East Syracuse woman is accused of stabbing her two young nieces while she was babysitting them at a home in Katonah.  Police have charged 39-year-old Lisa Turkki of East Syracuse with two counts of felony assault.

Authorities went to the house on Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah shortly before 9:30 p.m. Saturday after receiving a 911 call. The couple's home is across the street from the estate of Martha Stewart in an upper class neighborhood

An officer saw Turkki outside the house when he arrived and took her into custody.  He found two sisters ages 7 and 9 with multiple stab wounds on the kitchen floor.  Police say the girls, Maeve and Anabel Kelly, were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Both are critical condition after undergoing surgery.

When police arrived on the scene, both girls were conscious.

In a news conference on Monday morning, Lt. Jeffrey Dickan of the Town of Bedford Police said that the girls' condition had been upgraded to stable and improving.

According to the police, the suspect herself called 911. Two kitchen knives that police believe may have been the weapons were recovered at the scene. Dickan responded later to the scene, which he described as horrendous.

"It was quite horrible," he said. "I won't elaborate on that...there was a lot of blood in the kitchen area of the house."

Turkki voluntarily submitted to drug tests, but Dickan said that it did not appear that she was under the influence of any substance following the incident. Police say they still don't know why Turkki would stab her two nieces.

Turkki was arraigned in Town of Bedford court and taken to Westchester County Jail where she is being held without bail. She will return to court Thursday at 7 p.m.

Turkki was at one point a volunteer with Arise in Onondaga County. The staff members there expressed dismay and surprise over the incident.

East Syracuse (WSYR-TV ) - Many of Lisa Turkki's neighbors in East Syracuse expressed shock when they were told Turkki is accused of stabbing two elementary-age students she was babysitting in Westchester County.

Police in the Town of Bedford arrested the East Syracuse woman last night after finding her nieces, Maeve and Anabel Kelly, with multiple stab wounds in a scene that police described as "horrendous."

Some of her neighbors were unaware that Turkki had even been charged with a crime until they were informed by reporters who had knocked on their doors.

Turkki lives on Summer Haven Drive near the Links at Erie Village golf course.

Despite the relative proximity of homes in the neighborhood, residents were hard pressed to provide more details about the woman.

One neighbor, Annie Rooney, recalls seeing Turkki walking her dog.

"When she first moved in her parents planted a lot of flowers, so they were really helping her instead of her helping herself..she didn't talk to too many people..I'm still shocked, terribly shocked," said Annie Rooney.

Another neighbor told NewsChannel 9 that Turkki had recently returned from Finland where she had visited friends and family.

Thursday, she will return to court in Westchester County.