Cynthia Wachenheim wrote a note that was 13 pages long on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. She is a lawyer who is out on leave for child-care. In the note, which was seen by a law enforcement official, the woman’s son fell a couple of times recently.
The son, Keston Bacharach, fell from a play set onto a wood floor and out of bed when she left the room for five minutes. She blamed herself for the falls that caused a series of seizures and concussions that have caused problems that will affect him for the remainder of his life. She wrote that the pediatrician, family members, and friends did not believe her. In the letter, she wrote that she could not live with the pain he might suffer the rest of his life because she did not keep him safe. She wrote that she was going to do “evil.”
The woman jumped out of a window in her eighth-floor window, with her son strapped to her body. She died as a result of the jump, but her son survived. He was cushioned by her body and suffered a bruised cheek.
“I’m sure you understand, I’m absolutely overwhelmed with grief,” her husband, Hal Bacharach, said in a brief telephone conversation Thursday. “I have my son, who was lucky enough to survive, in my lap. It’s unbelievable. Right now my crying son is in my arms.”
She was on leave from her job as an associate court attorney in the Manhattan State Supreme Court system.
In the letter, she wrote that she would give her own life in order to bring her son’s health back to normal and that she hated herself. She also noted that she was depressed and did not have the ability to socialize any longer. Her failure to keep her son safe caused her to ‘crumble.’