TAMPA, Fla., (Reuters) – A Florida man with a troubled past was charged with murder after throwing his 5-year-old daughter over a bridge into Tampa Bay on Thursday, just hours after police questioned his bizarre behavior but found no grounds to detain him, authorities said.
John Jonchuck, 25, had custody of his daughter despite a lengthy arrest history involving his turbulent relationship with the child’s mother.
Police gave no motive for the grim episode they said played out just after midnight, when Jonchuck sped past an officer at 100 miles per hour (160 km per hour) and headed toward the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.
He stopped his car near the top of an approach to the bridge, appearing to wait for the officer, then removed daughter Phoebe Jonchuck from the vehicle, police said.
He threw her over the bridge railing and drove off at a normal speed as the officer began searching for the child in the waters some 60 feet (18 metres) below, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said. While it was not immediately clear if the kindergarten student was alive when thrown, an off-duty officer who witnessed the incident thought he heard her scream, Holloway said.
“You just throw this baby away like it’s nothing,” the chief said at a news conference.
Phoebe Jonchuck’s body was found in the water about an hour and a half later, police said. Her empty pink car seat was sitting in the back of her father’s car when authorities stopped him in nearby Manatee County.
On Wednesday, a Tampa attorney representing Jonchuck in a custody case had called police to report concerns about his behavior. She said he had called her “God” and asked her to translate a Bible that was written in Swedish, according to a police report.
