Police link fatal stabbing, suicide jump from bridge

The woman who jumped to her death from the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge on March 28 killed her estranged husband hours earlier in what authorities believe was a domestic dispute, Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said Monday.

Sinagra said Deborah Adels, 62, of 1976 Old Kings Highway, Saugerties, stabbed her estranged husband, Randall Adels, 58, multiple times, then drove to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, which spans the Hudson River between the towns of Ulster and Rhinebeck, and jumped.

Police agencies previously reported the stabbing death and bridge suicide, and they also said the stabbing suspect was dead, but the names of the deceased and that fact that the two cases were connected were not made public.

Regarding the suicide, town of Ulster police said previously that officers responded to the bridge about 10:40 p.m. March 28 and that the jumper’s body was recovered from the river soon after. Sinagra said Monday that Saugerties police discovered Randall Adels’ body in Deborah Adels’ home about 1:55 a.m. March 29 while trying to contact the woman’s relatives about her death.

After knocking and getting no answer, Sinagra said, officers looked through the windows of the home and saw Randall Adels’ body on the living room floor.

“They saw what appeared to be a body on the floor with what appeared to be blood around it,” the chief said.

Sinagra said officers forced their way into the home and found that Randall Adels had been stabbed “multiple times,” though he declined to say how many.

Sinagra said the couple separated in 2018 and that Randall Adels was living at 14 Mountain View Ave. in the Barclay Heights area of Saugerties at the time of his death.

Sinagra said that in 2019, Randall Adels asked police to accompany him to Deborah Adels’ home so he could retrieve some of his belongings, but the chief said that was the only interaction his department had with the couple.

“There wasn’t an extensive history of domestic violence,” he said.

Sinagra said it appeared that on the day of the stabbing death and suicide, the two had made arrangements to meet at Deborah Adels’ house, though it wasn’t clear why.

“He had been there for a while prior to this occurring,” Sinagra said. “At some point early that evening, she ended up stabbing him multiple times. She at some point left the residence, and at some point thereafter ends up at the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge.”

“Its unfortunate,” Sinagra said of the two deaths.

Sinagra said Ulster County offers multiple services for those involved in domestic violence situations or suffering from mental illness

“There are other alternatives,” he said. “This is not the answer.”