Doctor throws 2 kids, self off balcony
By DAVID FISCHER, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 39 minutes ago
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Qinuo Van Dyk heard one of her children screaming from an adjacent room at a landmark South Beach hotel, walked into the room and saw her husband jump off the 15th-floor balcony, police said.



She looked over the railing and saw her husband and two young children lying on a mezzanine roof at the Loews Hotel about two floors above the ground.

Dr. Edward Van Dyk, 43, tossed his 4- and 8-year-old sons to their deaths Saturday morning, Miami Beach Police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said. Authorities did not release the boys' names.

Qinuo Van Dyk, 40, told police she and her husband had been having marital problems for the past six months, but hadn't argued right before the incident, Hernandez said.

Despite the marital problems, he said, the Alton, Ill., family had been celebrating the couple's 10th wedding anniversary.

"It's unfortunate that this gentleman was so selfish and in an effort to get back at his wife he took the two most loved people in the world away from her," Hernandez said.

He said the woman did not know why her husband, a radiation oncologist at Alton Memorial Hospital, killed the children and himself.

Edward Van Dyk became head of the hospital's cancer center 18 months ago after the family moved from New Mexico, hospital officials said.

"We are shocked and saddened by this tragedy and we offer our deepest sympathy to Mrs. Van Dyk and her family," hospital spokesman Rob Shelton said.

Other doctors at the hospital described Edward Van Dyk as quiet, intelligent and friendly.

Dr. Ed Ragsdale said Van Dyk dealt with patients who had severe forms of cancer and their subsequent therapy.

"It's a very stressful job," Ragsdale, chairman of the hospital's department of medical imaging, told The (Alton) Telegraph on Saturday. "It takes a strong person to deal with that kind of disease all the time."

Ragsdale told the newspaper he spoke with Van Dyk on Friday afternoon and that his colleague was not acting unusual but did not mention his trip to Florida.

A Loews Hotel spokeswoman in Miami declined comment.

It always amazes me when people in high paying white collar jobs do sick and demented stuff like this. One would never think.

Wasn't Ted Bundy a practicing attorney?

I suppose it can seem weird, but, then again, I can understand it, given the mental stresses of jobs like these.

even though it's not nearly the same magnitude, my friend's dad, who is an anesthesiologist, barricaded himself in his home with his gun collection after an argument with his wife. it ended the next day when the cops came barrelling through.

edit: and this is so fucked up. throwing kids off a balcony? unreal.

The other night a friend described how, when she had been unhappily married and deeply depressed, she had contemplated suicide and it was never in doubt that she'd also take out her daughters. Her thinking hadn't been based on spite, but on her belief that it would be best for them/save them from more unhappiness. I imagine this is the mindset in many of those cases. Depression is really fucked up.

This comment doesn't make any sense to me. People with high paying jobs are just as susceptible to mental breakdowns as those who make less money.

yeah, there is a reason why doctors, lawyers, and professors typically have the highest rates of suicide in the US.

that's pretty strange. my parents actually used to work at that hospital when i was 3, 4 years old or so.

Also, I had heard or read somewhere years ago that attorneys had the highest rate of alcoholism of any profession.

This used to be true of architects, or so every professor I ever had told me.

I see what your saying, it just seems that highly educated folks with high incomes should know better.




I've heard that that is a brutally stressful gig.

Makes you think that addiction might not be an intellectual thing.

Chefs have to b near the top of this list as well. Every instructor I had told me tales of drug and alcohol addiction running rampant in the culinary.

This story is just all kinds of fucked up. It's one thing to take your own life but the children? WTF?

this may not be true. i can't find better info, but read here.