In just a few hours, a helpful postpartum visit from her California best friend took a tragic turn: The Pittsburgh mother’s new twins were both hospitalized — one of them would not survive — and her friend was the prime suspect in the abuse.
That friend, Nicole Virzi, of San Diego, pleaded guilty this week to the 2024 death of 6-week-old Leon Katz and the physical abuse of the other twin, according to a news release from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania.
Virzi, now 32, eventually admitted to investigators that she had intentionally harmed babies, saying she had had “the compulsion … to hurt children” her entire life, according to transcripts filed in the case. She said she shook Leon hard and dropped him several times on purpose, including on a tile floor, but she said she “didn’t want him to die.”
After his death, tests revealed that Leon suffered “a severe skull fracture on the left side of his head, as well as multiple brain hemorrhages,” Virzi’s arrest report states. A doctor determined that both boys’ injuries were “consistent with being sustained as a result of child abuse.”
Virzi faces up to 35 to 80 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of third-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Virzi, a former doctoral student at UC San Diego studying clinical psychology, traveled to Pittsburgh in June 2024 to meet the twins and spend time with her best friend’s growing family.
At one point during the visit, she reported to the twins’ parents strange injuries on Ari, the surviving twin, according to police reports. She offered to watch Leon while the parents took Ari to the hospital, her family reported in emotional statements submitted in the case.
During this time, Leon suffered fatal injuries, according to police. Virzi called 911 and initially reported the baby had fallen on his head. He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to reports.
In a statement, the twins’ mother, Savannah Roberts, said she had “no intention of leaving (Virzi) alone with the boys,” but after discovering Ari’s injuries, the new parents gave in to Virzi’s offer to keep Leon.
“I don’t understand how anyone, especially someone I consider family, could see baby Leon, shake him, drop him and throw him to the ground, torturing him for their own pleasure,” Roberts wrote in an emotional statement. “I never suspected that Nicole would commit child abuse, even for a second. Now, I struggle to make even basic decisions about Ari’s care for fear that I might make a choice that inadvertently harms her.”
Despite the tragedy, the family said Ari is now doing well.
Ari “became the most caring and loving friend around,” Roberts wrote.
“Being his mother brings me more joy and comfort than anything in my life,” she wrote. “Yet, also as Leon’s mother, every milestone, every accomplishment, and every birthday that Ari reaches is overshadowed by the realization that Leon should experience so much in life, alongside his brother.”
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