Boys who survived plunge from NJ bridge remain in fair condition

By Monsy Alvarado

The Record

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Two young boys who survived a 100-foot plunge from a route 287 bridge in Wanaque with their father, who died, remained in fair condition Wednesday while police continued their investigation into the suicide.

The boys, ages 1 and 3, were being treated at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, said Elizabeth Asani, a hospital spokeswoman.

The father either threw his sons or had them in his arms when he intentionally jumped to his death from the bridge, officials said.

The boys were taken by their father, John Spincken, 37, to the bridge on Monday night. Spincken and his wife, who own a house in Pequannock, were involved in a domestic dispute at the time, police said.

Police do not know how the children survived the jump, saying that their fall may have been cushioned by trees. They were conscious and alert when authorities found them near their father’s body.

Capt. Christopher DePuyt of the Pequannock police said investigators do not know if Spincken threw the boys off the bridge before he jumped, or whether he carried them when he plunged to his death.

DePuyt said Wednesday morning that police are waiting to interview Spincken’s wife and a friend of hers who made the 911 call to police.

“Our next hurdle is sitting down with the mother and her friend,” he said. “We are being respectful. … Her priority is with her children.”

DePuyt said police have spoken to two witnesses who were driving near the bridge at the time that authorities were searching for Spincken and his children. He said one person who spoke to police reported seeing Spincken in his vehicle on the bridge looking at his cellphone. But DePuyt said police have yet to speak to anyone who may have seen Spincken outside his vehicle before he jumped.

The police captain said the younger boy suffered a concussion, a fractured rib and a bruised lung in the fall, and the 3-year-old had a concussion.

Police said they had never been called to the family’s two-story home on Greenview Drive, which Spincken and his wife purchased in June for $589,000, according to property records. The couple had moved from Butler, where records show they had lived for about five years.

The Pequannock police said they were first alerted to a problem in a 911 call at 6:55 p.m. Monday when a friend of Spincken’s wife expressed concern about an argument the couple were having. By the time police arrived at the home, DePuyt said, Spincken had left with the boys.

Police reached out to AT&T, and the company narrowed the search area for Spincken’s vehicle with the help of the GPS signal from his phone. Police found his vehicle parked on a shoulder of the southbound lanes of Route 287, where a high fence had been installed years ago to prevent suicides. They believe that Spincken climbed on top of his vehicle to clear the fence, DePuyt said.

DePuyt said officers from Pequannock, Wanaque, Oakland and the state police aided in the search for Spincken and his sons.