Upper West Side Couple Commit Suicide Together After Nearly 60 Years Of Marriage

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An elderly couple found dead Sunday in their Upper West Side apartment committed suicide together due to their deteriorating health, police told Patch.

The 86-year-old man and 88-year-old woman were discovered with plastic bags around their heads when a friend came to visit them in their apartment on Cathedral Parkway between Riverside Drive and Broadway, police said. A suicide note left behind by the couple said that they lived a happy life and had decided to commit suicide on their own free will.

The friend, Stephen Collins, told the Daily News that the two had planned to die together.

"They always said they wanted to go together. They always wanted to exit together," Collins told the Daily News. "They had been saying that for years, at least 30 years. I was worried, because we speak every day. I called and got no answer. I came to check on them and found them. It was devastating."

The Daily News identified the married couple as Joyce Hope Suskind and Olaf Ringdahl, two artists who started dating in 1958 and got married in 1960.

"They never separated after their first date," Collins told the Daily News. "They had a very loving relationship. She'd say, I don't want to live without him."

Officers from the NYPD's 24th precinct will investigate the deaths to determine if any criminality was involved, police told Patch.

Photo by Patch