Posted on 10/30/2026 1:35:33 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
A woman driven by a compulsion to harm children admitted in a Pittsburgh court that she murdered her best friend’s infant son in a plea agreement that is likely to keep her in prison for life.
Nicole Virzi, 32, had been charged with capital murder with the possibility of the death penalty before she opted to plead guilty Wednesday to third-degree murder and other charges.
She was sentenced to 35 to 80 years behind bars.
“Although this office was committed to pursuing this case to trial and its ultimate conclusion, after continued and on-going consultation with the family and considering the best interest of the community and its protection we agreed to offer the above plea and sentence,” the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Virzi, a University of California San Diego doctoral student, was a close friend of the victim’s mother, Savannah Roberts. She had been visiting Pittsburgh and helping babysit Roberts’ newborn twins, Leon and Ari Katz, in 2024.
In June 2024, the twins’ parents, Roberts and Ethan Katz, took Ari to the hospital after they discovered wounds on his body. Virzi offered to look after Leon while they were away.
Late that night, Virzi called police and claimed 6-week-old Leon had fallen from a baby bouncer. He was rushed to a nearby children’s hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators quickly determined that the severity of the injuries to Leon could not have been caused by a fall from such a short height, and they took Virzi into custody.
Leon’s death was eventually ruled a homicide caused by “blunt force trauma to the head,” and “the manner of death was ruled homicide,” Pittsburgh police said in a criminal complaint. It was also determined that the injuries to Ari that caused the family to leave Leon in Virzi’s care were caused by Virzi herself.
Virzi told investigators that she “always had a compulsion she could not control to harm kids,” prosecutors have said in court.
“This was a horrific case in which Virzi used her trusted relationship with the Roberts/Katz family to place herself in a situation where she could commit her horrendous acts,” prosecutors said.
The twins’ mother, Roberts, said the tragedy has forever shaken her trust in humanity.
“Nicole’s actions have fundamentally changed me as a person and I feel unrecognizable from the Savannah I used to be. I could’ve never imagined that a person, let alone my best friend, was capable of the cruelty or violence Nicole displayed,” Roberts wrote in a letter to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.
Let’s go get the Lindsey Clancy gang to come circle The wagons around her now. She was just being hormonal.
Monster is the first word I thought of.
She should just be executed. She can obviously never be allowed out in society ever again.
Is it just me or does she look like Wednesday Aadams?
My father beat my twin brother to death at 3 months old. He served a whole two years in prison. All my life I’ve had this feeling that’s hard to explain, like something’s missing. This twin will have the same feeling.
Let no one doubt the existence of a Devil and demons, nudging these women toward becoming the monsters we’re seeing.
She will have an interesting time in women’s prison with so many women separated from and missing their own children.
WOW
this happened before Linsay, and this woman ( Nicole) was not the mother of the children.
WOW
Doctoral student? Wonder if she was studying psychology.
I am not condoning anything, but there is a reason(s) twins/triplets end up in the system or outright killed more frequently then single births. Especially boys, sadly.
Before you say I have zero clue what I am talking about, I have 2 sets of twins under the age of 3 right now. Got so bad 4 months ago I was set on sending the youngest boy(8 weeks at the time) out for adoption. Thankfully I got overruled.
So very sorry. I cannot imagine.
Have you seen a recent picture of Jenna Ortega?
Wednesday Addams no longer looks like Wednesday Addams.
Firing squad would be appropriate. Much more reliable, swift, and cost-effective than lethal injection. Also more humane due to its speed. And if the monsters demand "special things" such as an all-female firing squad, offer them the option of shuffling off this mortal coil by the exact same method they applied to their innocent victims.
I am so sorry for you and him and of how this complicated your life.
I hadn’t yet read your post when I put mine up, so let me take this opportunity to say how very sorry I am about what happened in your own family. Not all monsters are female.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.