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This Guy Allegedly Threw His Five-Year-Old Daughter off a Bridge in Florida

The girl's dead body was recovered an hour and a half later.

Photo courtesy WFTS/ABC Action News

It was just after midnight, and all William Vickers wanted was to get home. But when a white PT Cruiser rushed past him at nearly 100 miles an hour, the St. Petersburg, Florida, police officer knew he had to make one more stop before calling it a day. He turned around and chased the vehicle, ultimately pulling up behind it near the Dick Misener Bridge.

A man got out and approached the police car. Vickers drew his gun. But John Jonchuck, Jr., a puffy-faced 25-year-old with side-swept bangs and an angular, tiny mouth, apparently went into the passenger side of his car instead of going after Vickers. When Jonchuck emerged, Vickers's report said, he was pressing his daughter to his chest. Then he walked to the side of the bridge and dropped Phoebe, his five-year-old, over the side—a 62-foot drop. Her body was recovered an hour and a half later.

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"She is deceased. She did not survive the fall," spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez of the St. Petersburg PD later told the Associated Press. "It is quite cold out here, and it was probably extremely traumatic." (Initial reports conflict as to whether the fall was what killed her, or if the child was already dead.)

Because Officer Vickers decided to start the search for Phoebe immediately, Jonchuck was able to drive away. He was later apprehended in Manatee County, where an empty pink car seat was found in his PT Cruiser. He was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, according to a press release issued by the police.

Jonchuck's court records point to a troubled past. He's been charged with domestic battery six times since 2008, records from Hillsborough County show, but never prosecuted. Records also show that he's divorced from his ex-wife, Michele Kerr, who has accused him of stalking. Yet somehow he had custody of Phoebe.

Appearing in court Thursday afternoon, Jonchuck told a judge he didn't want a lawyer, preferring to leave things "in the hands of God."

But even if he's determined to leave the judgment up to some higher power, officials are aghast at the man's alleged crime. "You just throw this baby away like it's nothing," Police Chief Anthony Holloway said at a news conference Thursday.

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