The researcher daughter of a distinguished Manhattan heart specialist has been accused of murdering the toddler twin son of one in all her closest associates.
Nicole Virzi, a fifth yr Ph.D. candidate on the San Diego State College/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Scientific Psychology, can also be accused of bodily abusing the useless child’s twin, based on stories.
Six-week-old Leon Katz, the son of Ethan Katz and his spouse Savannah Roberts, died on Father’s Day as Virzi was caring for him within the household’s Pittsburgh house, authorities mentioned.
Virzi and Roberts had been doctoral college students at totally different universities — Roberts was finding out on the College of Pittsburgh — however each had been centered on consuming issues, trauma and physique picture.
The couple left Leon in Virzi’s care whereas speeding Ari to the hospital with a mysterious harm to his genitals, which Virzi had alerted them to, authorities mentioned.
Whereas the first-time mother and father had been caring for Ari, Virzi claimed Leon fell from his bouncer chair whereas she stepped away to get a bottle, based on police and courtroom information.
However medical doctors discovered the accidents “in step with having been sustained because of baby abuse, as these are inflicted accidents that aren’t pure and never unintentional,” based on WTAE.
Virzi was known as a “trusted household good friend” within the GoFundMe established to assist the grieving mother and father and their surviving son.
Virzi had been staying in a close-by Airbnb on South Graham Road within the hipster Shadyside neighborhood when she was requested to take care of the child, who was “alert, aware and never injured,” based on a felony grievance obtained by by Pittsburgh’s TRIBLive.
It was not clear why Virzi was in Pittsburgh, however there have been traces of the friendship between the 2 ladies on-line.
Virzi’s X account is now protected, making her messages inaccessible.
However Roberts made reference to her not less than twice, as soon as in Jan. 2022 the place she referred to Virzi’s “unimaginable work” and as soon as in Might 2021 when she wrote a put up to Virzi saying: “You will do an AMAZING job! I can’t wait to listen to about your expertise.”
Cops arrived Walnut Road house after Virzi known as 911 at 11:17 p.m. June 15, authorities mentioned within the grievance. Virzi mentioned the child had suffered a bump to his head.
Virzi instructed cops she began babysitting Leon at about 6:30 p.m. that night time, and claimed he was doing positive, eaten, had dirty two diapers and had been burped, based on the grievance.
She fell asleep “for a time frame whereas Leon was within the bouncer seat,” Virzi claimed. When Virzi awoke, she mentioned, she went to the kitchen to get a bottle for Leon, and heard the child screaming.
Virzi contended she discovered Leon mendacity on the ground, picked him up, and noticed “a big bump to the left facet of Leon’s head,” prosecutors mentioned within the courtroom doc.
Paramedics rushed Leon to the hospital, the place medical doctors pronounced him useless at 5:47 a.m. on Father’s Day, police mentioned.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Workplace dominated the demise a murder. Leon’s explanation for demise was blunt power trauma to the pinnacle.
A head CT scan confirmed Leon suffered a extreme cranium fracture to the left facet of the pinnacle, together with a number of mind bleeds.
Virzi, a graduate of Pepperdine College who holds a graduate diploma in scientific psychology from San Diego State, grew up within the tristate space, the daughter of Dr. Peter J. Virzi, a highly-respected heart specialist affiliated with Mt. Sinai Medical doctors in Manhattan.
“I’ve no phrases,” a good friend and colleague of Virzi’s instructed The Submit Saturday. “I’m completely shocked. I had no thought.”
The good friend mentioned she didn’t know Virzi to be violent however mentioned famous she “had some interpersonal points. I might say she was just a little inflexible. She was good. However very pushed and motivated.”
A person who recognized himself because the suspect’s father hung up when The Submit known as.
Virzi was charged June 16 with felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a kid.
Virzi is at present being held with out bail on the Allegheny County Jail.
Virzi’s lawyer David Shrager instructed The Submit Saturday his consumer was harmless, and deliberate to plead not responsible.
“She is clearly devastated,” Shrager mentioned. “She’s extremely distraught and deeply unhappy. She mentioned it was nothing intentional. We’re doing a deep investigation. She has no felony historical past. We’ll do our greatest to present her a good listening to in courtroom. It is a case with a useless baby and a younger woman in jail. It shouldn’t be speculated on earlier than the case goes to courtroom.”
Virzi’s skilled bio says her “analysis goals to discover the complicated interaction between psychological components—resembling melancholy, stress, unfavourable have an effect on, and trauma— and important well being outcomes and behaviors— resembling metabolic syndrome, coronary heart illness, weight problems, consuming conduct, and train.”
“I’m notably concerned with exploring these relationships inside feminine and trauma-exposed populations,” she added. “By concentrating on these relationships, my analysis goals to make clear the distinctive challenges and alternatives for intervention inside these susceptible teams.”
She was additionally reportedly an teacher on the Cyclebar Carmel Valley in San Diego.
Roberts declined remark.
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