The grim hunt for the daughter of a slain newspaper heiress who jumped from the Tappan Zee Bridge ended yesterday.
The remains believed to be of Annie Morell Petrillo, 38, whose death leap last Thursday echoed her stepfather’s plunge 15 years ago from the same span — were found floating north of the bridge by Tarrytown firefighters, an official said.
An autopsy by the Rockland County medical examiner is expected to confirm the ID today.
Tarrytown Deputy Fire Chief Patrick Derivan said the body was discovered just after 3 p.m.
“We were out on our fire boat, assisting state police, and were doing a grid search,” he said.
Petrillo was the daughter of slain newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas.
On New Year’s Day 1994, her stepfather’s car was found idling on the bridge after he leaped to his death. Police determined he’d bludgeoned his wife with a claw hammer the previous night in their home in tony Bronxville.
Morell Petrillo, then a college student, found her mother’s bloodied body.
Scripps Douglas, the great-great-granddaughter of Detroit News founder James E. Scripps, died six days later at age 47.
Last Thursday, witnesses said they saw Petrillo stop her car on the bridge and jump.
The suicide has been devastating on the family, said Petrillo’s aunt, Mary Jane Haggerty of Rye.