Parents of Baby Allegedly Killed by Nicole Virzi Rebuild Lives

Few parents could imagine a more devastating ordeal: the death of their newborn son and a serious, disturbing injury suffered by his six-week-old twin brother—allegedly inflicted by a trusted PhD student friend, prosecutors say.

For the past two years, Ethan Katz, 31, and his wife, Savannah Roberts, 32, have been trying to piece their lives back together in Pennsylvania while creating a sense of stability for their surviving child.

Exclusive Daily Mail photographs show the couple and their two-year-old son, Ari, settling into a new routine in Pittsburgh as Nicole Virzi, the woman accused of killing their other son, prepares for a court hearing ahead of her trial.

Virzi, 32, the daughter of a prominent New York cardiologist, was only weeks from completing a PhD in clinical psychology when she was accused of attacking her best friend’s twins, Leon and Ari, while babysitting them in June 2024. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Leon died from severe head injuries, while his twin brother suffered injuries to his genitals.

Virzi, who is due back in court on Wednesday, has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including criminal homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Her lawyers have said that “negotiations are ongoing” regarding a potential plea agreement.

As Virzi has remained in jail since her arrest, the Katz family has focused on finding a way forward.

Unable to continue living in the rented apartment in Pittsburgh’s fashionable Shadyside neighborhood where the alleged attack took place, the couple moved to a more family-oriented area near parks and Carnegie Mellon University.

Savannah, an award-winning researcher, is now living within convenient reach of the University of Pittsburgh, where she is completing a PhD in clinical and developmental psychology as well as a predoctoral clinical psychology internship at a psychiatric hospital.

It is not known what Ethan does professionally. He spent several days inside the couple’s home, stepping out occasionally to walk and to take Ari to and from preschool in his stroller.

The couple have enrolled Ari at a preschool near their new residence, a townhouse-style apartment complex in a quiet neighborhood.

In recent weeks, the family has enjoyed glimpses of everyday life ahead of Virzi’s trial. They have hosted playdates and spent time with friends who appear to have supported them through the tragedy.

Ari and his parents also appear to have become well-known members of the local preschool community.

Last month, they held a sunset playdate in the shared garden, inviting several children and their parents for pizza and games with a child-sized basketball hoop.

The following day, Savannah devoted several peaceful hours to Ari at a playground before the pair visited colorful arts-and-crafts stalls at a children’s reading festival in the park.

Ethan later joined Savannah and Ari as they made their way home.

In a touching display of their devotion, Ethan and Savannah were seen wrapping their arms around each other as they gazed lovingly at Ari before scooping him up between them as they chatted animatedly to a friend.

The Katzes politely declined to discuss the upcoming trial, little Leon or how their family was now doing, when approached at their home by a Daily Mail reporter.

But Roberts’s mother, Shelly Roberts, who lives in Montana, appeared to be especially proud of her daughter’s resilience in the face of the unimaginable tragedy, telling the Daily Mail that Savannah is ‘a rock star’ and ‘an incredible human being.’

The Katzes’ rare snatches of peace came before they were set to be reminded of the harrowing ordeal as Virzi, a once ‘trusted family friend’, faces trial, accused of killing their son and injuring his twin, to which she has pled not guilty and denies doing.

The disturbing case began after Virzi, then 29, was repeatedly entrusted with babysitting the six-and-a-half-week-old tots at the Katzes’ home.

Savannah and Virzi became close friends while working as research coordinators in the graduate psychology department at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.

Virzi, who was raised in the well-heeled suburb of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, took a week-long vacation from her PhD studies at UC-San Diego, California, to travel to Pittsburgh to meet her friend’s sweet baby boys for the first time.

But what should have been a joyful visit soon descended into a living nightmare.

On June 15, the couple rushed Ari to hospital after Virzi claimed she found wounds to his genitals and blood in his diaper, injuries she claimed were caused by him scratching himself on his car seat.

The Katzes rushed Ari to hospital at 6.30pm – where he was found to have swelling, bruising and scratches to his penis – leaving Leon alone with Virzi at the family’s apartment, according to a police criminal complaint.

There, Virzi later called 911, telling cops she had fallen asleep to find the infant had fallen from his bouncer seat and hit his head, rendering him unconscious, per the complaint.

Little Leon was later rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead from a skull fracture and multiple brain bleeds in the early hours of June 16 – Ethan’s first Father’s Day and the Katzes’ wedding anniversary.

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An autopsy later concluded Leon’s catastrophic injuries were caused by blunt force trauma and were consistent with child abuse.

Virzi later returned to her nearby Airbnb where she was picked up by police the following day.

She initially denied harming Leon or Ari but later made a shocking video-taped admission to police, revealing she was ‘angry’ at having to do ‘nanny work’ during her weeklong vacation.

She told cops: ‘So, when I was alone with (Leon) I shook him a couple times – hard. And I dropped him a couple times – hard.’

Virzi said she ‘heard some kind of crack’ and flipped the infant upside down on the tiled bathroom floor.

‘Something just came over me I couldn’t control,’ Virzi said. ‘I’m telling you this because I can’t keep lying about it.

‘I did not want him to die,’ she added. ‘That was not my goal. I just wanted him to feel a little pain.’

In the chilling confession, Virzi later told how, from a ‘very young age,’ she had an almost uncontrollable ‘urge…to hurt kids’.

She recounted how, at just seven years old, she once locked a two-year-old child in a bathroom and pinched her until she cried.

In another incident, Virzi said she once placed a hot mug on a baby’s arm and pinched them.

‘This is the first time this happened as an adult,’ Virzi said in relation to the Katz twins.

‘There’s some weird drive in me that wants to see kids in pain.’

But Virzi claims she was bullied into making the ‘involuntary’ confession during a 13-hour interrogation.

During the interrogation, she claims she was shackled to the floor, refused a phone call and forced to pee in front of two police escorts.

Her lawyers unsuccessfully sought to have the confession suppressed, telling a judge investigators ‘used every trick in the book to manipulate’ her into falsely confessing to causing Leon’s death.

But Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas judge Jill Rangos ruled in February the jury should be shown Virzi’s confession, observing her statements were ‘knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made.’

Virzi vehemently denies harming Leon or Ari. If she maintains her not-guilty plea, she will face trial on charges for which prosecutors have sought the death penalty.

There is currently a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania, with the current Democrat governor refusing to sign off on the death warrants. The last execution in the Keystone State was in 1999. 

But the District Attorney’s office insisted the death penalty is appropriate for Virzi given the aggravating aspects of her alleged crimes, including the young age of the victim and evidence he had been tortured.

Bill Difenderfer, one of Virzi’s two criminal defense attorneys, previously told the Daily Mail ‘negotiations are ongoing’ when asked about whether a plea deal could happen before then.

‘This is a very, very serious case. She’s still in jail. She still has the support of her family.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Difenderfer and Virzi’s other attorney, Tina Miller, for further comment.

Former colleagues and friends previously told the Daily Mail how Virzi harbored an ‘underlying anger’ and a ‘bottled-up rage’.

Elin Lantz Lesser, who was a grad student at Drexel with Virzi and Roberts, said of Virzi: ‘I did always have an instinct of… maybe I need to mind my p’s and q’s around her a little bit, like I don’t want to get on her bad side.’

‘But I don’t know why because she never did anything negative to me.’

Another former psychology major, who knew Virzi from her studies at a different university, said she was always wary of Virzi.

‘There always seemed to be some underlying anger. Some colleagues that I’ve spoken to have had similar thoughts about it, that there was this bottled-up rage or something that never came out but you felt it was right there, even though she was friendly.’

Virzi’s family have declined to talk about their daughter’s impending trial.

Her father, Dr Peter Virzi, 70, who remains in Upper Saddle River, refused to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.

Virzi’s mother, Jennifer Graham, 62, who is divorced from her father and lives in Nyack, New York, could not be contacted for comment.