Woman who jumped from Yonkers building had attempted suicide five years ago

Things that make you go Hmmmm...

Note she was taking ..

300 milligrams of Seroquel and 100 milligrams of Trazodone. Seroquel treats bipolar disorder and Trazodone treats depression.


YONKERS - A troubled 32-year-old woman who jumped to her death from a fifth-floor window Thursday night tried to commit suicide five years ago by plunging into the Hudson River, and a 71-year-old captain of the city's U.S. Volunteer Life Saving Corps died saving her life.

Francesca Perez was the person whom Capt. Frank Kendrick of Yonkers saved after she jumped off the City Pier on Sept. 11, 2002, police said. He died of a heart attack while saving Perez.

"Oh, God, that is so awful," the captain's widow, Kay Kendrick, said yesterday after hearing about the suicide. "I feel so bad for her. I never wanted to say anything bad about her because Frank lost his life. This must have been just another burden she was carrying on her shoulders."

Kay Kendrick, who watched from the pier while her husband saved Perez, said she still has visions of the woman's face in the water even though she did not know her name at the time.
"I used to call her the angel that came for Frank," she said.

Frank Kendrick has been honored in Yonkers for saving the woman and many other lives in the Hudson River.

Kendrick's widow added, "I just wish that the doctors could have helped her."
Police Capt. Frank Intervallo, whose officers were sent to the 15-21 Caryl Ave. apartment building and found Francesca Perez's body, said, "It is tragic that people feel the need to take their own lives. People with mental health issues become more disturbed during the wintertime and as we close in on the holidays.

"In terms of Frank (Kendrick), it is ironic," Intervallo said. "It cost the life of one of her rescuers. You have to think that he wasn't wasting his life. He gave her five more years."
Francesca Perez had a history of mental problems and was recently released from St. Joseph's Medical Center's psychiatric center, said her 62-year-old mother, Angelina Perez.

She then went to live with her mother in her fifth-floor Caryl Avenue apartment. Her mother has legal custody and has cared for her daughter's 2-year-old son, Jared.

Francesca Perez lost her own apartment in a Riverdale rooming house when she went into the hospital, her mother said.

In an interview yesterday, Angelina Perez, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic, detailed what happened Thursday before her daughter's death. That account differed from her statements to a Journal News reporter the night her daughter died.

At times during yesterday's interview, Angelina Perez wept and screamed uncontrollably.
Perez said her daughter asked for $6 to buy cigarettes Thursday morning, then headed to New York City for back therapy. She returned less than two hours later.

"She was very tired," Perez said.

The mother and daughter had coffee together in their kitchen when Perez told her mother she had been vomiting. She also told her mother she was planning to get her a birthday present once she received her disability check. Perez's birthday is on Monday.

Between 12:30 and 1 p.m., Angelina Perez said, her daughter laid down on the sofa in the living room because she was tired. She was restless and took her medication for schizophrenia. Still restless, she went into the bedroom.

Angelina Perez said she went into the bedroom to take care of Jared.

"She (Francesca) said, 'Mommy, I can't sleep,' " Angelina Perez said.

She said her daughter looked as if she was about to cry.

With her mother in the bedroom with the child, Francesca Perez went into the living room, which is between the bedroom and the kitchen, and turned up the volume of the television, her mother said.

"I heard a noise like something breaks," she said.

She said she left Jared in the bedroom and rushed to the kitchen and looked out the window.

"My daughter was on the floor and all the blood was on her head," she said. "I will never forget that for all my life."

Francesca Perez was her only child.

Police said she apparently jumped out of the kitchen window.

"It was without warning," said police Capt. Fred Hellthaler. "There was no standoff."

Police were called to the scene at 2:37 p.m. and found the woman dressed in black pants, a black shirt and brown socks in front of the building. She was dead.

Intervallo said Angelina Perez told them that her daughter might be pregnant, so she was raced to St. Joseph's Medical Center in an attempt to save the baby, but doctors found she was not pregnant.

Mitchell Edwards, 50, a former boyfriend of the suicide victim, said she was always mentally troubled and that her mother had to care for Jared because she was not able to do it herself.
"I was shocked this morning when I found out," said Edwards, who was in the apartment with Angelina Perez trying to console her.

According to police records, Francesca Perez was taking 300 milligrams of Seroquel and 100 milligrams of Trazodone. Seroquel treats bipolar disorder and Trazodone treats depression.
Francesca Perez had served in the U.S. Army and was a graduate of Iona College.

Original Article- Woman who jumped from Yonkers building had attempted suicide five years ago.