JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel
07-12-2006, 07:16 AM
http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2006-07/24314710.jpg
Investigators have confirmed that a gas line leading into a landmark Manhattan town house was tampered with before the home was destroyed by a ferocious explosion that punctuated an exceedingly ugly divorce, authorities said Tuesday.
Police and fire investigators searching through the rubble of the 4-story Upper East Side building discovered that the basement gas line had been modified so that a hose could be attached to it, authorities said. Someone stretched a hose from the line to the rear of the building, they added.
Investigators Monday were looking into whether the doctor who owned the building, Nicholas Bartha, 66, turned on the gas and tried to kill himself and destroy the building as a final, bitter salvo in a long-running divorce battle. Paul Browne, a police department spokesman, said the incident was being investigated as a crime.
Hours before the blast, police sources said, Bartha e-mailed a 15-page, single-spaced letter to his ex-wife and 20 others, blaming her for hardships in his life, said a police official with knowledge of the situation.
"When you read this ... your life will change forever," Bartha wrote in the message. "You deserve it. You will be transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger. You always wanted me to sell the house. I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead."
Robert Kloss, who said he was a friend of Cordula Bartha, the ex-wife of Bartha, said in a statement, "The emotional turmoil wrought by the parties' divorce proceedings capped by this unspeakable tragedy is difficult enough to bear."
Someone needs to kick the lawyers ass...............................
Investigators have confirmed that a gas line leading into a landmark Manhattan town house was tampered with before the home was destroyed by a ferocious explosion that punctuated an exceedingly ugly divorce, authorities said Tuesday.
Police and fire investigators searching through the rubble of the 4-story Upper East Side building discovered that the basement gas line had been modified so that a hose could be attached to it, authorities said. Someone stretched a hose from the line to the rear of the building, they added.
Investigators Monday were looking into whether the doctor who owned the building, Nicholas Bartha, 66, turned on the gas and tried to kill himself and destroy the building as a final, bitter salvo in a long-running divorce battle. Paul Browne, a police department spokesman, said the incident was being investigated as a crime.
Hours before the blast, police sources said, Bartha e-mailed a 15-page, single-spaced letter to his ex-wife and 20 others, blaming her for hardships in his life, said a police official with knowledge of the situation.
"When you read this ... your life will change forever," Bartha wrote in the message. "You deserve it. You will be transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger. You always wanted me to sell the house. I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead."
Robert Kloss, who said he was a friend of Cordula Bartha, the ex-wife of Bartha, said in a statement, "The emotional turmoil wrought by the parties' divorce proceedings capped by this unspeakable tragedy is difficult enough to bear."
Someone needs to kick the lawyers ass...............................