A 44-year-old mother held onto her 10-month-baby boy and jumped from the eight-floor of a New York high rise on Wednesday, miraculously the baby survived the fall.
After writing a 13-paged suicide letter, Cynthia Wachenheim harnessed her son Kreston on to her body and around 3:30 p.m. jumped to her death from the window of her Harlem apartment, the New York Daily News reports.
The distraught mother fatally landed on her back, cushioning the fall for her son who bounced off her body and rolled onto the street. The baby was taken to Harlem Hospital and is in stable condition.
Reports say Wachenheim, a city employ who was on maternity leave, was heard arguing with her husband as he was leaving for work around noon. Neighbors say the couple was never caused problems and police told reporters they have never visited the couple's apartment for any domestic violence related complaints.
But Wachenheim was being treated for depression and reports say antidepressant pills were found in the apartment along with a 13-paged handwritten suicide letter.
"The note said she was not happy and she talked about what she planned to do," an unidentified source close to the investigation told the Daily News, adding that Wachenheim was "saying to her husband, 'I love you. I'm making you suffer. You're going to think I'm evil,'"
"She thinks she's a failing mother. On the last page, she refers to postpartum depression. She was supposed to see a therapist, but she blew him off. As the note goes on, you get the idea she's explaining why she's going to do it," the source said.
An 18-year-old witness who happened to be walking down the street where the woman fell described the harrowing scene to reporters.
"I heard a small scream when she was in the air," Steven Dominguez said. "I noticed something falling, but I didn't want to believe it was a person."
Dominguez added that the impact "sounded like a big piece of wood hitting the floor."
"When I got closer, I saw the baby crying," he said.
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