The lawyer representing John Nicholas Jonchuck in his custody case for his five-year-old daughter called the police and child protection services in a frantic attempt to warn them about the "mental health of Phoebe's father." She said he was "depressed and delusional."
On the same day Genevieve Torres dialed 911 and the Florida Department of Children and Families about her client's strange behavior, the 25-year-old Jonchuck was seen by a St. Petersburg police officer at around midnight driving 100 miles per hour toward the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. When the officer caught up with him, Jonchuck's car was parked on the approach span of the bridge; he charged toward the officer, who pulled out his gun. Jonchuck stopped, went back to the passenger side of his car to take his daughter out, and threw her over the railing into Tampa Bay.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway told the press in a conference on Thursday that Phoebe's body was found by rescue divers from Eckerd College. She was rushed to the All Children's Hospital but pronounced dead at 2:44 a.m. on Thursday. An autopsy has yet to reveal the cause of death.
Jonchuck is now in the custody of the police after fleeing the police officer on Sunshine Skyway Bridge. He is charged with first-degree murder and is held without bond. Asked whether he wanted to be represented by an attorney, he replied: "I want to leave it in the hands of God."
"I'm pretty sure God is not going to be representing you in this case, and you're going to be standing trial," was Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews' reply.
Earlier on Thursday, Jonchuck and Phoebe paid a visit to his child custody attorney, who asked him if he wanted her to file paperwork for the case. Torres said she became scared when Jonchuck answered that "it's not going to matter anymore." She said he was "out of his mind." The attorney told police Jonchuck called her God and asked her to read the Bible in Swedish.
He "started talking to me and saying I was the creator, I was God and then he wanted to read a Bible of his - I said, 'I can't, it's in Swedish' - he started being really... I mean, he's nuts," she frantically told the 911 dispatcher according to an audio released by the police.
Hours after the call made by Torres and before Jonchuck would throw his daughter off the bridge, police found him and Phoebe sitting inside a church. Everything seemed to be all right, and an officer described the girl as "smiling and appeared healthy, properly clothed and happy."
Jonchuck calmly told the police he was happy and was "trying to better his life." He said he started eating healthy and recently lost weight. He also said he was given 37 different medications to take all at one time, but he had not taken any of those this week.
"I am the Pope," he told the church's priest, according to an officer, and then backtracked to say, "I know I am not."
Jonchuck had custody of Phoebe. He and Phoebe's mother, Michelle Kerr, are separated. Both parents have arrest histories - Jonchuck for domestic violence and physical abuse and Kerr for child neglect, petty theft and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Kerr last saw her daughter on Christmas Eve, when the three of them spent what could have been a nice evening that ended on a sour note when Jonchuck suddenly dialed child protection services falsely alleging Kerr of physical abuse.
"He does the Jekyll and Hyde," Kerr said. "It's just something that goes on in his head. He just wasn't wired right."
Still, Kerr said she "always saw him as a good dad."
"(Phoebe) would always say, 'I love you daddy.' She loved her dad."
Phoebe Jonchuck wore a big smile and her curly blonde hair loose. She loved princesses and hated bath time. She was scared of water.
