A woman parked her car at the western Pennsylvania bridge and jumped to her death on June 14, leaving three young children inside the vehicle.
The Pittsburgh public safety department said that at about 7:20 p.m. on Friday, police, fire, and emergency medical responders reached the Homestead Grays Bridge after 26-year-old Stanlee Allyn Holbrook plunged into the Monongahela River, reported TRIBLive.
Authorities found three children aged one to nine inside the car. They were evaluated to a local hospital and according to early reports were placed in the custody of Allegheny County Children, Youth, and Family Services after the incident.
As responders went looking for her body, two lanes of traffic were closed and traffic had to be diverted into the adjoining areas. The woman’s body was later recovered from the river at 9:15 p.m. on Friday.
Neighbors told the media that she was a dedicated mother.
“In today’s world, you see a lot of mothers struggling to do it by themselves,” Holbrook’s neighbor, Joanna D'amico of McKees Rocks, told the Post-Gazette.
“But I just don’t understand this at all. She didn’t show a sign that something was wrong.”
“She was always really good with her kids, and always taking care of them,” D'amico added.
Another neighbor, Lynette, told the media that she saw the mother two days before she jumped to her death.
“She seemed tired and like she had been up all night with the baby,” Lynette said. “She had her troubles. I know she was suffering and she had bills like everyone else.”
D'amico said that Holbrook was a disciplined mother and her mother often supported her in taking care of her children.
“She would warn us that it would be loud when she would have the kids over, but she kept them all in line,” Lynette said. “I can’t say anything bad about her.”
According to the more recent report by Pittsburg Post-Gazette, the neighbors said the three children are currently with their grandmother.
