SUICIDAL: Cops say Manuela Maria Morgado attempted suicide after killing the son she had with Dr. Timothy Reish. (AP)
SUICIDAL: Cops say Manuela Maria Morgado attempted suicide after killing the son she had with Dr. Timothy Reish (above right). (
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A suburban single mom, despondent over the latest round in a custody battle with a prominent Manhattan doctor over their 4-year-old son, killed the little boy and then botched a suicide bid, authorities said.
Manuela Maria Morgado was charged Monday with murdering Jason Reish, whose father, Timothy Reish, is a New York orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine and has worked for the Knicks and Yankees.
Morgado, 46, was cradling her son’s dead body and semiconscious from taking “some type of pills” when cops found her in the bedroom of her Mamaroneck apartment Monday morning, according to police in the Westchester town
Dr. Reish — who reunited a few years ago with his ex-wife and lives with her and their two kids in Briarcliff Manor — arrived at the scene and screamed, “Where is he? Where is his mother?” a neighbor told the Journal News.
“I don’t think anybody ever saw this coming,” Dennis Light, Morgado’s custody lawyer, told The Post.
Morgado and Reish, 43, had joint custody of their son, but had been duking it out over his schooling.
The child had attended day care at Scarborough Presbyterian Children’s Center near Reish’s home.
But as he got ready to enter preschool, he was evaluated as a special-needs child, and Morgado asked that he be allowed to attend a Mamaroneck school that specialists determined was more suited to helping him, Light noted.
He believes Morgado, a graphic designer, may have been pushed to the brink after a Friday court conference with an appeals judge that ended with no resolution.
“She was disappointed,” said Light, who spoke to Morgado that night.
“Looking back now, she seemed a little detached. At the time, she just seemed cold. I believe she took it as yet another defeat. “It’s surreal; I’m in shock and disbelief.”
Morgado left suicide notes, police said.
Reish and Morgado began dating while he was living in New York and separated from his wife, Erin, sources said.
Erin Reish, who helped put her husband through medical school, filed for divorce in March 2005, records show.
The doctor tried to have the case tried in Ohio, where they’d previously lived, but Erin blasted him in court documents, suggesting he was trying to pull a fast one because New York considers a medical license part of the marital assets, and Ohio doesn’t.
She also told the court that her husband’s concerns about custody of their two young boys “were not genuine.” Reish couldn’t be reached, and a woman who answered the phone at his Manhattan office declined to comment, saying only, “This is not the right time.”
Reich lived with Morgado, a graphic designer at a New York firm, in Ossining between 2006 and 2010 — when Morgado bought a $400,000 condo in Hoboken, records show.
By 2011, Reich had reconciled with his wife, and moved his family into a sprawling $1.3 million home in Briarcliff Manor, records show. He paid $3,000 a month in child support for little Jason.
Erin Reich ’s Facebook page features pictures of her happily posing with her husband and their 13- and 11-year old sons. There are no pictures of Jason.
After her split with Reich, Morgado’s life seemed to unravel. In 2010, she filed for bankruptcy, claiming nearly $500,000 in debt, including the Hoboken home and unpaid credit card bills from Target, Toys R Us, Sears and Macy’s. Authorities did not release the cause of Jason’s death but sources said Morgado may have had the boy inhale helium before killing him.
The child died sometime after 8 p.m. Sunday, police said.
Morgano is charged with second-degree murder and is being held without bail in a Mamaroneck jail. She is due in court Thursday.