Aunt stabs two girls near Martha Stewart's farm

By ADA CALHOUN, C.J. SULLIVAN and CATHY BURKE

Last Updated: 10:47 AM, August 2, 2010
Posted: 4:00 AM, August 2, 2010

A woman baby-sitting her two young nieces went berserk and stabbed them repeatedly in a bloody rampage in her sister and brother-in-law's showcase Westchester home across the street from Martha Stewart's farm, authorities said yesterday.

Lisa Turkki, 39, grabbed a knife from the kitchen of the Katonah home and stabbed Maeve and Annabel Kelly, ages 7 and 9, at around 9 p.m. Saturday, seriously wounding both youngsters, said police in Bedford, the town that encompasses Katonah.

A 911 call was placed at 9:22 p.m., apparently by Turkki, pleading for help.

The girls' parent -- financier Joe Kelly, 50, and Eva, 43, -- were in nearby Caramoor attending a concert.

They were called to the box office at intermission and told to return home.

Neighbors heard screams from the parents as they entered the blood-spattered kitchen where the mayhem unfolded.

"This is a parent's worst nightmare," said Heather Flournoy, who once wrote on her blog, Katonah Green, about the family and their innovative "green" home.

"Heartbreaking and close to home."

Turkki was arrested in the front yard on assault charges. Her nieces were in stable condition at Westchester Medical Center and were expected to survive.

"They are lovely, the loveliest couple I know," said Tapani Talo, 59, the contractor who helped turn the Kelly home into a cutting-edge example of green living, featuring geothermal heating.

The home is across Girdle Ridge Road from Stewart's farm and near Ralph Lauren's estate.

"The girls are so great. I can't believe this would happen to them. I would assume anyone who could do this would have mental problems," Talo said.

Neighbors knew little of the aunt, who lives with her parents upstate. Calls to the home were not answered.

"She didn't seem quite right -- a little odd," one neighbor told The Post.

Records show Turkki, who lives in East Syracuse, was a volunteer at ARISE, a nonprofit that works with people with physical and mental disabilities, in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Phone calls to the program were not answered.

Talo said Joseph Kelly travels around the world for his work in financial services. His wife, who used to be in finance, now stays home with her girls, he said.

Flournoy, 41, used to give Eva Kelly horseback-riding lessons.

"That family is just so sweet," she told The Post. "They're raising chickens and bunnies and gardening. I've had the girls around my pony, and they are just sweet, regular girls, a little shy with new people." Neighbors rallied around the family.

"There is little to be said that isn't already in everyone's thoughts," one neighbor wrote on Facebook. "It's what we try to protect against, and wonder why it still happens. It's very hard to believe that anyone is capable of this."

From: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/martha_st_slasher_Obtp0C75yGlRFeQulsYOOI