NEW YORK — A former Playboy centerfold involved in a custody battle apparently jumped with her 7-year-old son to their deaths from the 25th floor of a Manhattan hotel room, law enforcement officials said Friday.
The pair checked into the penthouse suite of the Gotham Hotel at about 6 p.m. Thursday, police said at a brief news conference. They fell 23 floors, and were found on a second-floor balcony at about 8:15 a.m. Friday in the rear courtyard of the hotel, police said.
Law enforcement officials identified the woman as Stephanie Adams and her son as Vincent. They were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The officials said she was involved in a custody dispute over Vincent with her estranged husband, a Manhattan chiropractor named Charles Nicolai, and police had been called to their home several times in the past few months.
A receptionist who answered the phone at Nicolai's office said Nicolai would not comment and was unreachable.
The New York Post profiled Adams in 2013, saying that she had by then written more than 25 self-help books, ran an online beauty products company and managed the finances in her husband's office. She appeared in Playboy in 2003, worked with Elite Model Management and had two business degrees, according to the Post profile,
"The stereotypes are sexist and unfair," Adams told the Post in the profile. "Just because I look a certain way and have expensive tastes, it doesn't mean I'm shallow. Style and looks don't mean lack of brains, sweetheart!"
Adams and her husband were sued in 2013 by a massage therapist at the chiropractic office who claimed she was fired because Nicolai said his wife could become jealous because the therapist was "too cute."
The Gotham Hotel is on 46th street, about four blocks from Grand Central Terminal.