The father, identified as John Spincken, leaped off a New Jersey bridge with his sons in his arms
The night began with a kidnapping.
At 6:55 p.m. Monday, police in Pequannock, a small town in northern New Jersey, received a call that a man had threatened to harm his family, local authorities said. He had argued with his wife, the woman told police, then drove away with their two young sons -- age 2 and 4 -- in a white SUV.
Authorities tracked the car to Interstate 287 and, using cellphone GPS data, pinpointed its location to milepost 56.4.
There, according to state police, they found the white SUV, parked on an overpass that looms above the Wanaque River.
The man and his boys were not inside.
They had already jumped.
Authorities feared the father had attempted suicide and searched the terrain below the overpass. They found the family in a wooded area near the river, state police said in a news release.
The father was dead. His sons, miraculously, were not.
The children were transported to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center with injuries considered to be not life threatening, state police said.
The names of the man and his sons have not yet been released by police. Authorities said the investigation is active and ongoing.
State police would not say Monday night how far the three fell but said it was part of the investigation. ABC 7 reported they jumped from as high as 100 feet, though a CBS 2 report estimated the fall could have been anywhere from 20 to 50 feet.
An eight foot fence lines the overpass, according to CBS 2. It was unclear how the man and his children were able to scale or find a way around the fence to jump.
State police did not say how long the three had been in the wooded area before they were discovered by authorities, but local authorities reported that the children were found conscious.
© 2016 The Washington Post
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At 6:55 p.m. Monday, police in Pequannock, a small town in northern New Jersey, received a call that a man had threatened to harm his family, local authorities said. He had argued with his wife, the woman told police, then drove away with their two young sons -- age 2 and 4 -- in a white SUV.
Authorities tracked the car to Interstate 287 and, using cellphone GPS data, pinpointed its location to milepost 56.4.
There, according to state police, they found the white SUV, parked on an overpass that looms above the Wanaque River.
The man and his boys were not inside.
They had already jumped.
Authorities feared the father had attempted suicide and searched the terrain below the overpass. They found the family in a wooded area near the river, state police said in a news release.
The father was dead. His sons, miraculously, were not.
The children were transported to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center with injuries considered to be not life threatening, state police said.
The names of the man and his sons have not yet been released by police. Authorities said the investigation is active and ongoing.
State police would not say Monday night how far the three fell but said it was part of the investigation. ABC 7 reported they jumped from as high as 100 feet, though a CBS 2 report estimated the fall could have been anywhere from 20 to 50 feet.
An eight foot fence lines the overpass, according to CBS 2. It was unclear how the man and his children were able to scale or find a way around the fence to jump.
State police did not say how long the three had been in the wooded area before they were discovered by authorities, but local authorities reported that the children were found conscious.
© 2016 The Washington Post
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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