PA - infant Leon Katz murdered, twin injured, allegedly by babysitter, Pittsburgh- June 24, 2024

[Tortoise]

What was the diagnosis for Ari? It sounds as if he could have had a UTI - those are common in boys under 6 months and some of the symptoms match up. Has there been any reporting on what the ER doc determined?

I also can imagine being strapped in to multiple seats (car seat, bouncer) could cause redness and swelling if the genitals were compressed in an unnatural way. The blood, though, would suggest a UTI IMHO.

from the probable cause affidavit it states "consistent with having been sustained as a result of child abuse, as these are inflicted injuries that are not natural and not accidental"

taken from here:

 

[NCWatcher]

Those celebration stories were circulating early on but seem to have mostly died out. The stories also don't seem consistent with the PCA. The PCA probably has errors too. But general times and where the parents were is probably not wrong unless the parents aren't being honest to LE. I'm not saying that's happening but I guess anything is possible.

I'm not sure when the anniversary dinner or Father's Day celebration was supposed to be. Father's Day was Sun Aug 16 not Sat Aug 15. And it appears their wedding anniversary was Aug 6. https://www.westelm.com/registry/h92crc79p8/registry-list.html
Some stories also throw in it was E's birthday too. I'm not sure how that was verified or if it was.

If NV had been there a few days and had come east to "babysit" not to visit her friend SR as some stories claim, that seems very odd to me. Perhaps the couple has no other trusted friends or family nearby to babysit but flying across the country so friends can go out to eat? Seems odd to me. Plus, if the genital injury happened earlier, didn't either parent change a diaper to see it? Or was NV changing all the diapers? She was staying at a Airbnb blocks away not at the couple's house so how would that have been possible?

I can see dad deferring decisions but it still seems odd to me he didn't wake her up if there was an obvious injury. Of course, as several posters have suggested, maybe it wasn't that obvious at the time, but was in hindsight only after Leon was injured.
MOO

Too late to correct by editing but obviously Fathers Day was Sun June 16, not Sat Jun 15 & certainly not in Aug. But the above site says they were married Aug 6, 2023 and lots of press stories say Aug. So having an anniversary dinner in June would seem very odd to me. People who are into that sort of thing don't change the wedding month to be 2 months earlier and change the date to be 9 days later in my experience.
MOO

 

[IDK]

Those celebration stories were circulating early on but seem to have mostly died out. The stories also don't seem consistent with the PCA. The PCA probably has errors too. But general times and where the parents were is probably not wrong unless the parents aren't being honest to LE. I'm not saying that's happening but I guess anything is possible.

I'm not sure when the anniversary dinner or Father's Day celebration was supposed to be. Father's Day was Sun Aug 16 not Sat Aug 15. And it appears their wedding anniversary was Aug 6. https://www.westelm.com/registry/h92crc79p8/registry-list.html
Some stories also throw in it was E's birthday too. I'm not sure how that was verified or if it was.

If NV had been there a few days and had come east to "babysit" not to visit her friend SR as some stories claim, that seems very odd to me. Perhaps the couple has no other trusted friends or family nearby to babysit but flying across the country so friends can go out to eat? Seems odd to me. Plus, if the genital injury happened earlier, didn't either parent change a diaper to see it? Or was NV changing all the diapers? She was staying at a Airbnb blocks away not at the couple's house so how would that have been possible?

I can see dad deferring decisions but it still seems odd to me he didn't wake her up if there was an obvious injury. Of course, as several posters have suggested, maybe it wasn't that obvious at the time, but was in hindsight only after Leon was injured.
MOO

I agree the reporting is strange because some of the initial articles referred to NV as the nanny!

 

[acutename]

i know .... response to older quedtion. BUT her father practices in NYC, so assume parents are in NY.
She did grow up in Pittsburgh, so she would be familiar with the city.

news articles have referred to her as a "family friend"

Prosecutors to seek death penalty for PhD student accused ...​

Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com › prosecutors-seek-death-pen...





4 days ago — A page started to support the family after the baby's death described Virzi as a "trusted family friend." Virzi, who was a clinical ...

which implies to me that the families knew each other...maybe growing up...

 

[Occam's Zebra]

Re: Ari's injuries. Bruising and swelling are not instantaneous - they take some time to show up (esp bruises). Hadn't NV just shown up there that day, and the parents also were there? So why didn't either of them notice the injuries on Ari? If the father was waiting for the mother to wake up before taking Ari to the doctor, he couldn't have been THAT worried. And they left Leon in NV's care, which means they had no suspicions that she had done anything to Ari.

The ER let the parents take Ari home, also meaning (to me) that there were no medical suspicions of abuse. Only afterward it's decided NV hurt Ari, because of what happened to Leon? That's not evidence-based decision making. If the dr was concerned that Ari had been abused (either by NV or one or both of the parents), those suspicions should have been raised already.

 

[SMK777]

Re: Ari's injuries. Bruising and swelling are not instantaneous - they take some time to show up (esp bruises). Hadn't NV just shown up there that day, and the parents also were there? So why didn't either of them notice the injuries on Ari? If the father was waiting for the mother to wake up before taking Ari to the doctor, he couldn't have been THAT worried. And they left Leon in NV's care, which means they had no suspicions that she had done anything to Ari.

The ER let the parents take Ari home, also meaning (to me) that there were no medical suspicions of abuse. Only afterward it's decided NV hurt Ari, because of what happened to Leon? That's not evidence-based decision making. If the dr was concerned that Ari had been abused (either by NV or one or both of the parents), those suspicions should have been raised already.

Agree fully with your post. The entire case was born of the second incident with Leon.

 

[Curious Me]

I remember news articles mentioning their anniversary and Father's Day, BUT nowhere did I see it saying in media print that the couple went out to celebrate and left her, NV, to babysit. That was just somebody's conjecture, and became a rumor, but it never was a confirmed fact, nor do I remember a link saying that specific thing, AFAIK. MOO, rumors without a link just confuse things.​

 

[Tortoise]

Re: Ari's injuries. Bruising and swelling are not instantaneous - they take some time to show up (esp bruises). Hadn't NV just shown up there that day, and the parents also were there? So why didn't either of them notice the injuries on Ari? If the father was waiting for the mother to wake up before taking Ari to the doctor, he couldn't have been THAT worried. And they left Leon in NV's care, which means they had no suspicions that she had done anything to Ari.

The ER let the parents take Ari home, also meaning (to me) that there were no medical suspicions of abuse. Only afterward it's decided NV hurt Ari, because of what happened to Leon? That's not evidence-based decision making. If the dr was concerned that Ari had been abused (either by NV or one or both of the parents), those suspicions should have been raised already.

The parents were interviewed by detectives at the hospital, so suspicions of abuse were reported before they left the hospital.

She has been charged with causing the injuries so they must be satisfied they were not older. IMO

 

[NCWatcher]

The parents were interviewed by detectives at the hospital, so suspicions of abuse were reported before they left the hospital.

She has been charged with causing the injuries so they must be satisfied they were not older. IMO

I've not seen it reported detectives interviewed the parents at the hospital. I saw it reported they told a doctor they saw they didn't know what happened but they didn't harm their child. That's quite different. Do you happen to have a link re: hospital interviews by detectives? I've looked but can't find one. It still seems odd to me the parents were in and out with Ari so fast if there was an ongoing investigation at that point.
MOO

 

[Tortoise]

I've not seen it reported detectives interviewed the parents at the hospital. I saw it reported they told a doctor they saw they didn't know what happened but they didn't harm their child. That's quite different. Do you happen to have a link re: hospital interviews by detectives? I've looked but can't find one. It still seems odd to me the parents were in and out with Ari so fast if there was an ongoing investigation at that point.
MOO

I'm not sure there has been a factual source for the parents leaving with AK prior to being interviewed. I know one of the news outlets reported it, but the PCA only says the father went home and then back to the hospital again.

"Detective O'Neil also responded to the hospital and interviewed the parents, whereby Detective Bliss was present for some of this."

timestamp 5.13/17.43

 

[MissMalowe]

Was it ever disclosed if this woman had any experience babysitting infants?

 

[SMK777]

Was it ever disclosed if this woman had any experience babysitting infants?

Not that I’ve read anywhere.
But her defense says she was a “trusted friend” of the parents, so they assumed her maturity and professionalism made her competent.

 

[Curious Me]

... snipped to reply

MOOO.

I have to run errands now or I'd watch the video again and try to catch more about when the couple were at the hospital, etc., If you do watch it again, and find info you want a screen shot of, just find the timestamp and I'll make a screen shot.

Taken from Probable Cause Affidavit within above video. Newspaper articles can say anything, so it might be best to rely on PCA, but I realize it is missing details too. ​

 

[NCWatcher]

I have to run errands now or I'd watch the video again and try to catch more about when the couple were at the hospital, etc., If you do watch it again, and find info you want a screen shot of, just find the timestamp and I'll make a screen shot.

Taken from Probable Cause Affidavit within above video. Newspaper articles can say anything, so it might be best to rely on PCA, but I realize it is missing details too. ​

View attachment 528026

View attachment 528027

Reading the above, it seems to me the interview of the parents occurred after NV had called 911 about Leon and Leon had been taken to the hospital. It's not clear at all to me the detectives were called based on Ari's injury prior to being notified of Leon's. So as I've said before, it appears to me the medical staff's view of Ari's injury changed after Leon was injured. I'll watch the video when I get home but the screen shot from the PCA seems to say that. So I'm still not sure there was an interview of the parents early on (except that any doctor would ask what happened.)
MOO

 

[IDK]

Reading the above, it seems to me the interview of the parents occurred after NV had called 911 about Leon and Leon had been taken to the hospital. It's not clear at all to me the detectives were called based on Ari's injury prior to being notified of Leon's. So as I've said before, it appears to me the medical staff's view of Ari's injury changed after Leon was injured. I'll watch the video when I get home but the screen shot from the PCA seems to say that. So I'm still not sure there was an interview of the parents early on (except that any doctor would ask what happened.)
MOO

I’ll be interested to hear what you think. It’s interesting to me as well that Ari’s injuries weren’t flagged as abuse until Leon was injured.

Since the prosecution is using the suspected abuse of Ari as a factor to qualify her for the death penalty, it seems a little iffy. I think a good defense attorney could use the fact that medical staff didn’t initially raise the possibility of child abuse based on Ari’s symptoms to create reasonable doubt.

 

[NCWatcher]

I’ll be interested to hear what you think. It’s interesting to me as well that Ari’s injuries weren’t flagged as abuse until Leon was injured.

Since the prosecution is using the suspected abuse of Ari as a factor to qualify her for the death penalty, it seems a little iffy. I think a good defense attorney could use the fact that medical staff didn’t initially raise the possibility of child abuse based on Ari’s symptoms to create reasonable doubt.

I would agree. It seems iffy to me. We may not have all the facts but from the PCA, it seems it was only later it was called abuse re: Ari.

I guess the big question is whether they can get a conviction on the count for Ari. I suspect making it a factor in seeking the death penalty is partly to strength the chances of a guilty verdict for Ari because the case is iffy. A number of posters have said they were on the fence about Ari being intentionally hurt until Leon was injured. I get it, really I do. But that's almost backward causality. Ari was abused because Leon was fatally hurt. So convict for Ari so we can punish properly for Leon. But what if it really was an accident? We still don't know lots of things: what the composition of the floor he supposedly fell on was, that the booster chair was on the floor vs on a table raising it higher and so on.
MOO

 

[SMK777]

Reading the above, it seems to me the interview of the parents occurred after NV had called 911 about Leon and Leon had been taken to the hospital. It's not clear at all to me the detectives were called based on Ari's injury prior to being notified of Leon's. So as I've said before, it appears to me the medical staff's view of Ari's injury changed after Leon was injured. I'll watch the video when I get home but the screen shot from the PCA seems to say that. So I'm still not sure there was an interview of the parents early on (except that any doctor would ask what happened.)
MOO

Agreed.

 

[SMK777]

I would agree. It seems iffy to me. We may not have all the facts but from the PCA, it seems it was only later it was called abuse re: Ari.

I guess the big question is whether they can get a conviction on the count for Ari. I suspect making it a factor in seeking the death penalty is partly to strength the chances of a guilty verdict for Ari because the case is iffy. A number of posters have said they were on the fence about Ari being intentionally hurt until Leon was injured. I get it, really I do. But that's almost backward causality. Ari was abused because Leon was fatally hurt. So convict for Ari so we can punish properly for Leon. But what if it really was an accident? We still don't know lots of things: what the composition of the floor he supposedly fell on was, that the booster chair was on the floor vs on a table raising it higher and so on.
MOO

I would agree that sound judgement requires a lot more information.

 

[acutename]

My humble advice would be to not believe any one news article to be the total confirmed truth or the complete story. MOO, the Probably Cause Affidavit (see above video) is even missing details, but that's the more official version. I also think it's wise to hold off on assigning her all kinds of evil intent until we learn more.

Sensationalized not only in the media, but I feel the Prosecution stating those four aggravating factors to seek a DP sentence is prematurely trying to influence this towards guilt before the facts have been proven.

AFAIK, she had a pristine record of no prior criminal actions and was a serious student with conscientious goals. She deserves her day in court, but has been given an evil characterization before the timeline and details have even been straighten out. What if this were you or I and this was some fluke series of events? We'd want to be given the benefit of doubt until we present our side in a courtroom. ​

Nicole Virzi returned to Airbnb distraught after baby killing

Video exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com shows Nicole Virzi, 29, returning to her Airbnb rental in Pittsburgh shortly after midnight June 16, appearing distraught and anxious.

www.dailymail.co.uk

View attachment 527832 Daily Mail article sensationalizing it. They have great photos and a video of the officer's tattooed arm, but really... does she look glamorous in her arrest? ​

they say she is glamorous; they say she is distraught....a lot of this is to make a headline IMO

 

[shesfixingherhair]

So as I've said before, it appears to me the medical staff's view of Ari's injury changed after Leon was injured.

I don’t understand what this would imply. Two incidents are the minimum to establish a pattern. They wouldn’t have been able to identify a trend after seeing only one injury.