A New Jersey father had a dispute with his wife and threatened to harm their two young boys ages 1 and 3. Accordingly, the father took off in their SUV, stopped in one part of I-287 and jumped with the two children, who survived the 100-foot fall but their father did not make it alive.
The father, 37-year-old John Spincken, was believed to have climbed the fence on the bridge then jumped. Officials found the SUV of the family parked on one side of the bridge and braced themselves to expect the worst as they made their way down the bridge. The officers used a path to locate the children and were surprised to see that they were alive.
"When the officers found the children -- conscious and alert -- it's nothing short of a miracle, that's for sure," Captain Christopher DePuyt said in a statement, CNN reported. DePuyt added the police tracked down the vehicle using the GPS signal on the father's phone.
The area where the children and their dead father were found in close proximity was near the Wanaque River. The terrain was forest-like as it had bushes and trees. Officials believed this helped the children land in a safer area and reduce the impact of the fall. Although the two children survived the 100-foot drop, both have suffered from concussions. One had a bruised lung but the two children are expected to make a full recovery, ABC 7 reported.
Before the fall, police officials said that they were called at around 6:55 p.m. at a hoe on Greenview Drive in Pequannock, New Jersey. The mother of the two children said that she and her husband were arguing and then he threatened to harm the children.
The father then took the boys with him and by 8 p.m. police was notified that a man jumped from the Wanaque Bridge with his two sons. It was believed that Spincken positioned his vehicle close to the fence so he could use it to climb and jump.
Spincken was pronounced dead at the scene at around 9 p.m. Meanwhile, officials are still trying to pin point if the children were thrown off of the bridge then the father jumped subsequently or if he was holding them when he jumped.
