Police declined to discuss a possible motive or Lisa Turkki's mental state.
View full sizeBedford Police Lt. Jeff Dickan updates the investigation into Saturday night's stabbing of two young sisters at their Katonah home, outside the Bedford Police Station in Bedford Hills on Monday.Katonah, NY -- A Manlius woman accused of stabbing her two young nieces while baby-sitting them quietly waited outside her sister’s Westchester County home for police to arrive after she called 911, authorities said Monday.
Inside, the scene at the home in Katonah on Saturday night was “quite horrible,” according to Bedford police Lt. Jeffrey Dickan.
The 7- and 9-year-old girls, who had been stabbed repeatedly with kitchen knives, were found on the kitchen floor, he said. They were both conscious and able to talk to officers, the lieutenant said. Police found two knives used in the attack in the room, he said. “There was a lot of blood in the kitchen area,” he said.
The girls — Maeve, 7, and Annabell Kelly, 9 — underwent surgery Sunday and were in stable condition and improving Monday, police said. Their aunt, Lisa Turkki, 39, of 393 Summerhaven Drive North, sustained a minor injury to her leg that was possibly self-inflicted, Dickan said. Turkki was arraigned on two counts of assault and was ordered held without bail at the Westchester County Jail.
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 voluntarily submitted to tests and did not seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Dickan said.
In Manlius, neighbors on Lisa Turkki’s cul-de-sac in Erie Village described her as a quiet, friendly woman who kept to herself.
One man, who declined to give his name, said he had his first conversation with her last week after several years of living near each other. Turkki told him she had just returned from visiting relatives in Finland, he said.
View full sizeLisa Turkki jail mugshot (from The Journal News).Turkki volunteered at ARISE between 2001 and 2004, said Nancy Kronen, speaking for the advocacy agency for people with disabilities. Turkki was a sidewalker at ARISE at the Farm, the organization’s therapeutic and adaptive horseback riding and outdoor recreation program, typically working with another volunteer to escort a person riding on a horse, Kronen said.
“Our experience with Lisa as a volunteer was very good,” Kronen said. “The staff said that they enjoyed having her as a volunteer and she was great.”
Neither Kronen nor Turkki’s neighbors said they knew how she made her living.
Turkki graduated from Jamesville-DeWitt High School in 1988 and went to Syracuse University. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1993 in psychology from the College of Arts and Science and a master’s degree in counselor education in 1998 from the School of Education.
Her mother, Pirkko Turkki, is a retired professor emeritus from the SU’s Department of Human Nutrition in the College of Human Ecology. She became an American citizen in 2008, according a newspaper story. Lisa Turkki’s father is Erkki Turkki.
Lisa Turkki’s sister, Eva, the mother of the children Lisa’s accused of stabbing, also graduated from Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from the Whitman School of Management in 1989.
View full sizeThe home of Joseph and Eva Kelly, at 85 Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah, is seen on Monday. The Kelly's two young daughters were repeatedly stabbed inside their home on Saturday and are in stable condition and improving, police said Monday during a press conference outside the Bedford Police Station.The stabbing occurred in a $1.3 million home owned by Eva Kelly and her husband, Joseph Kelly. The home is across the street from Martha Stewart’s estate. Katonah is about 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan.
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, said Dickan.
The lieutenant said he did not know whether Turkki had ever baby-sat the girls before.
This report was compiled by The Associated Press and Post-Standard staff writers John Mariani, Elizabeth Doran and Douglass Dowty.