A woman clutching her baby son in her arms plunged eight storeys out of an apartment window to her death in an apparent suicide on Wednesday, but the baby survived, police said.
Cynthia Wachenheim was found on the street with her son, 10-month-old Keston, near her arms. A police officer who responded took the baby to a hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. Police discovered a seven-page suicide note under a bed in the apartment Wachenheim shared with her husband. In the note, the 45-year-old Wachenheim said she recognized what she was about to do was "evil" but she was concerned about how her child was developing, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
It was unclear if the baby had any mental or physical problems. A window to the West Harlem apartment was wide open, and there were no signs of struggle inside, police said. There were no safety bars on the windows. Surveillance footage showed Wachenheim’s husband leaving the apartment about an hour before her plunge.
Area resident Steven Dominguez, 18, was walking to a grocery store with his mother when he saw the woman fall. He said the baby bounced off her body, breaking some of the impact of the fall, before hitting the ground nearby. “I heard a scream like a yell,” Dominguez said. “When I got closer, I saw the baby crying.” He said the baby was face down. “I was shocked,” he said. “I couldn't believe it.” Dominguez said his mother went to pick up the baby but an emergency response person told her to stand back.
The apartment is in a relatively new building facing Jackie Robinson Park. A crowd of onlookers had gathered nearby on Wednesday afternoon, awaiting the medical examiner’s office, which would determine the official cause of the woman’s death.
