Couple who jumped to death advised son on coping with loss

Couple who jumped to death advised son on coping with loss

Chiropractor Glenn Scarpelli (pictured) and his wife Patricia, ages 53 and 50, have been identified as the couple who jumped to their deaths from a Manhattan office building early Friday morning

The couple who plunged to their death from a Manhattan office building, sent their kids to elite private school but warned them they could lose 'everyone they love.'

Joseph Scarpelli's parents, chiropractor Glenn Scarpelli, 53, and his wife Patricia, 50, jumped to their deaths on Friday, after struggling with debt, authorities have said.

Before they took their own lives, it appears they prepared their children for how to cope with the loss of their loves ones. 

In an essay, read out to his classmates at the elite Loyola High School, on the Upper East Side, in March 2016, Joseph Scarpelli, 19, shared some advice his parents had shared with him.

'My parents repeatedly told me that I could wake up one day and lose every material possession and everyone I love, but no one will ever be able to take away my faith,' he said in the morning assembly.

The essay, written for the school magazine, also talked about coming from a 'proud Italian-American family' who were weekly communicants at their local Catholic parish.

Joseph now attends the University of Miami School of Business Administration, while his sister, Isabella, 20, who also attended the elite Jesuit-run Catholic high school - which costs $8,905 per year - is now at St. Edwards University in Texas. 

The bodies of the couple are pictured on the ground, covered in white sheets, after their fatal jump Friday morning  

The couple jumped from a window in Glenn's recently closed chiropractic practice. The office was located on the ninth floor of a 17-story building

Classmates told the Post that neither of the kids were aware of their parents' financial struggles - which the couple mentioned in the two suicide notes they left behind.

'Their kids didn't know anything about their financial problems,' said a woman who attended Loyola High School with Isabella. 'None of us did. He seemed like he loved his job.'

The couple left behind suicide notes in a ziploc bag, detailing their 'financial spiral'.  A photo of Glenn's note, obtained by the New York Post, shows part of the letter, with the full text obscured. However, parts of the note are visible, showing that he talks about how he and his wife 'had everything in life', but that they 'can not live with' their 'fina ncial reality'.

In the wife's suicide note, she asked that their kids be taken care of. 

DailyMail.com has learned that the Scarpellis had a history of financial problems and had been pursued for dozens of outstanding tax liens by federal and city authorities since at least 1998.  

The Scarpellis sent their children Joseph and Isabella to the elite Loyola High School, on the Upper East Side (pictured)

The couple live in downtown Manhattan, but travelled up to their former office in Murray Hill to die. They jumped at around 5:45am  

Glenn Scarpelli had been pursued in federal court over failing to pay back a federal loan issued in 2000 for advanced medical education in 2013, having failed to make most payments over the course of more than a decade.

Public records showed that Glenn owed about $213,000 to the federal government and nearly $42,000 to the state in unpaid taxes dating back to 2003. 

But they still managed to sent their two schools to the private school. Both parents were active supporters of the school while the children attended it, taking part in organizing its annual benefit gala. 

Isabella, 20, played varsity soccer and track and field while Joseph played varsity baseball and won an award for math and science when he was at Loyola. 

Glenn and Patricia Scarpelli jumped from the ninth-floor window of a 17-story office building on Madison Avenue in Murray Hill on Friday morning.

The couple lived downtown near Wall Street but they traveledto Glenn's recently closed chiropractic practice, just a block from the Empire State building, to commit suicide.

The couple lived on the third floor of this building in lower Manhattan, with their 19- and 20-year-old children 

They jumped from a window of the ninth-floor office around 5:45am, dying as they fell on the hard asphalt of East 33rd Street, near Madison Avenue.

Police covered their bodies with white sheets when they arrived on the scene, shutting down the entire block to investigate. 

A neighbor of the Scarpellis, who did not wish to be named, said she occasionally passed the couple, who lived on the third floor, in the hallway and said they seemed like nice people, who were quiet and kept to themselves.

However she said on each occasion she had seen Scarpelli, he appeared to have been drinking but was not 'fall-down drunk'.

A bartender at nearby Mad Dogs & Beans, located belo w the Scarpellis apartment building, said he recognized a picture of the husband, adding that he would come in and have a few drinks but that he was not talkative.

Scarpelli was originally from Brick, New Jersey, where he had been a soccer star at the local Memorial High School.

He went on to study at Logan College of Chiropractic in St Louis, Missouri, graduating in 1990. In 2008 he was a vice-president of its alumni association.

Much of his family remain in Brick, including his niece Leah Scarpelli, who is in the U.S. under-17 national women's soccer team.  

Scarpelli pictured above with members of the New York State Chiropractic Association

His older brother Craig, 55, is also a chiropractor, practicing in their hometown. He was a goalkeeper for the U.S. national soccer team and a professional soccer player before becoming a chiropractor, and is also a graduate of Logan College.

Last year Glenn gave $100 to a charity set up by chiropractors to help the poor in Haiti.

Perry Kim, 49, a worker at Pure Green, a juice shop on the same block, said that he was outside just after 5:30am this morning when he heard an 'ahhh' noise and saw two people fall from the top of the building.

The man appeared to hit his head and the woman had suffered abdominal injuries. They landed face up to the sky. 

Scarpelli pictured above (top) adjusting Dr. Fabrizio Mancini's neck

He said his manager called 911 and police and EMTs were there soon after but the bodies were immediately covered.

Javier Guzman, who works at the shoe repair shop across the street, told DailyMail.com that he had come into work around 6:45am and had seen the couple lying in the street. 

He said: 'I didn't recognize them but they looked young, in their forties.' 

He said he believed they had jumped from the 9th Floor window which remained open.

The couple committed suicide just a few hours after Senate Republicans tried to pass a bill that would repeal Obamacare. 

But three members of their own party - including Sen. John McCain - voted against the bill and it failed to pass, keep ing the Affordable Care Act in place for now. 

Sen. McCain said that he voted against the bill because it was irresponsible to take health care away from millions of Americans without a new plan to replace it.  

• For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here

• For confidential support on suicide matters in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here 

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