Couple caught in ‘financial spiral’ jump to their deaths
Manhattan parents struggling to pay their doctors’ bills jumped to their deaths early Friday — leaving double suicide notes pleading that their two kids be cared for, a law enforcement source told The Post.
The bodies of the 53-year-old man and 50-year-old woman — who claimed they had had a “wonderful life” — were found in the middle of the street on 33rd Street between Park and Madison avenues in Murray Hill after the pair jumped from the 9th-floor window of a 17-story corner office building on Madison Avenue at about 5:45 a.m., police said.
The woman had a suicide note in her pocket that read, “in sum and substance, ‘Our kids are upstairs, please take care of them,’” the source said.
The man had a typed note in his pocket that began with “WE HAD A WONDERFUL LIFE.”
“Patricia and I had everything in life,” read the note, which touched on the couple’s “financial spiral” and how “we can not live with” the “financial reality.”
The source added that a line of the note contained words to the effect: “’We both have medical issues, we just can’t afford the health care.’”
The victims’ identities were not immediately released.
Area workers who witnessed the aftermath of the tragic incident were stunned.
“When I got here at 6:05 a.m., I walked by dead bodies on the ground,” said a woman who would only identify herself as Kazi, who works at the nearby 7-Eleven store.
“I was scared. I’ve never seen dead bodies before,” she said.
Another man who works at the building next door said when he heard police sirens, he looked out the window and saw the two bodies.
“Insane,” said the man, who identified himself as Harry.
The couple’s tragic deaths come at a time of national debate on health care reform.
