Former Playboy Playmate Stephanie Adams jumped with her 7-year-old son to their deaths from a Midtown Manhattan hotel Friday, amid a nasty custody battle.
Adams, 47, leaped with young Vincent from the top floor of the Gotham Hotel around 8:15 a.m., sources said.
The pair checked into the hotel Thursday evening and were staying in a 25th-floor penthouse suite, NYPD Chief of Manhattan Detectives William Aubrey said at a press conference.
Their bodies were found on a second-floor landing in the hotel’s rear courtyard.
“Early this morning investigators located an individual whose attention was drawn to that same second-floor area when he heard two loud noises,” Aubrey said. “His attention was drawn to that and he discovered these two deceased individuals.”
The Gotham Hotel is located on 46th Street, about four blocks from Grand Central Terminal.
Custody battle
Stephanie Adams, the Playboy centerfold, who was the magazine’s Miss November 1992, filed for divorce from New York chiropractor Charles Nicolai in 2017 and was seeking child support from him.
Adams and Nicolai appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday morning — when the former Wilhelmina model asked a judge for permission to take their son, Vincent, to Spain for the summer.
Adams’ boyfriend lives in Spain and owns a home in London.
Nicolai, who has visitation rights, fought against the plans. Ultimately a judge sided with the Wall Street chiropractor, and Adams was ordered to turn over Vincent’s passport as a result.
The New York Post reports:
The 47-year-old mom sounded distraught in a two-minute phone call to The Post’s Richard Johnson around 1:15 p.m. Thursday.
She said Nicolai and his lawyer were blocking her from taking her son on vacation.
“All I want to do is take my son and get away from this nightmare for a few days,” she said. “But they won’t let me.”
The bad years
Adams had endured years mired in lawsuits and failed relationships.
In 2013, the couple was sued by Dilek Edwards, a former massage therapist at Nicolai’s practice who claimed she was fired after her boss admitted Adams would get jealous because Edwards was “too cute.”
Edwards told the Post she would receive “frantic” text messages from Adams that read, “You are NOT welcome any longer at Wall Street Chiropractic, DO NOT ever step foot in there again, and stay the F— away from my husband and family!!!!!! And remember I warned you.”
The 32-year-old claimed her relationship with Nicolai was “purely professional” and she had no clue what sparked Adams’ “absurd suspicions.” However, Edwards claimed Nicolai said their sessions “had to be a secret” because “if his wife hears about it, she can create some scenarios.”
At the time, Adams denied the allegations.
In 2012, Adams was awarded $1.2 millionfor rough treatment during a 2006 encounter with NYPD, which she said she led to permanent neck and back injuries. In her lawsuit against the city, Adams said officers threw her to the ground at gunpoint after a taxi driver falsely claimed she was armed and dangerous.
Stephanie Adams was of African American, Caucasian, and Cherokee ancestry and claimed to be a direct descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
One Response
What a troubled young woman. Mental health issues for sure.