NYAC Apparent Suicide Tragedy A Reminder Of Eerie 2004 Incident from
DailySquashReport.com
June 9, 2011-The death
on Tuesday of former Duke University basketball player Thomas Emma, who
plunged from the 12th floor of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan
in an apparent suicide, was a chilling reminder of another incident at
the club half a dozen years ago.
On October 23rd, 2004, Mark Mitchell found his squash partner Thomas
Toolan on the 24th-floor solarium roof of the club, drunk and depressed
and contemplating suicide. Mitchell talked Toolan down from the roof
and attempted to sober up his friend with a meal and an escort to an
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Two days after being talked off the NYAC roof, Toolan traveled to
Nantucket, Massachusetts and killed his girlfriend Beth Lochtefeld, who had
recently broken up with him.
Toolan was convicted of first degree murder in 2007 and sentenced to
life in prison.
The case was detailed in the Brian McDonald book, “Safe
Harbor: A Murder In Nantucket”.