John Spincken, 37, who owned an auto detailing company, died after jumping off a highway bridge with his two toddler sons in his arms who miraculously survived the 100-foot plunge into a wooded area. Fortunately the boys are expected to make a full recovery. The boys ages 1 and 3, survived after their father leaped from the Wanaque Bridge, New Jersey on Monday night, state police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene; the boys were found nearby, near the Wanaque River, police said.
"When the officers found the children conscious and alert it was nothing short of a miracle, that's for sure," Pequannock Township police Capt. Christopher DePuyt said on Tuesday.
Spincken's actions shocked a lot of people who said he smiled a lot and loved being a father.
He called fatherhood, on his social media, as the "best feeling in the world" and described the panic and then relief that washed over him moments after a health scare threated his younger son's life.
"You see, we all have good days and bad days but at the end of the day we are BREATHING! Do not take life for granted, you never know when you will take your last breathe," he wrote.
The whole brouhaha started on Monday night when a friend of Spincken's wife called the Police to say that Spincken had taken the toddlers and threatened to harm them.
Police said that at 6:55 p.m., they were called to a home on Greenview Drive in Pequannock, New Jersey.
The mother of the two boys said that she and Spincken were arguing and he told her that he was going to harm the children. He then took the boys and drove off with them, according to the New Jersey State Police.
Around 8 p.m., state troopers said they were notified that a suicidal man may have jumped from the Wanaque Bridge with his two sons.
DePuyt said after they got the call, Spincken was tracked through his cellphone to the bridge but didn't find anyone in the car.
Spincken apparently climbed on top of his car and then scaled a 12-foot-high fence meant to prevent people from jumping off the bridge, DePuyt said.
Police believe tree branches helped break the boys' fall.
"I was expecting the worst outcome when I arrived at the scene, and I was amazed last night and even this morning on the condition of the children," DePuyt said.
Spincken was declared dead at 9pm the same day.
Spincken who was from Pequannock listed family, health, and cars among his interests on his Instagram account and shared pictures of his young family on Facebook.
"Not a day goes by that I don't feel grateful and appreciative," Spincken wrote in comments on a collage he posted in August of his boys.
Police were trying to gather more information and better understand what may have triggered Spincken, DePuyt said. because he had no record in the state but said Spincken pleaded guilty in 2003 to violating a domestic violence restraining order in the previous state they lived in.
Neighbors were shocked at the news and said that they looked like a loving family.
"Something really had to go wrong. They looked loving. They really did," neighbor Abe Balasis told reporters.
A community group from Kean University came to the family's home to leave teddy bears for the children.
"A lot of people know about mental health issues, and they wanted to reach out to do something right away for the family," said Kean's Dr. Norma Bowe.
The boys, whose injuries weren't disclosed, were hospitalized in fair condition on Tuesday.
[AP]
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