In May this year, 54-year-old Catherine Kassenoff penned a heartbreaking note on Facebook.
The mom of three wrote that she would be ‘’ending my own life’’ with the help of assisted suicide in Switzerland.
According to the Daily Mail, the former special counsel to the governor of New York wrote: “It is with profound heartbreak, that I hope none of your ever experience, that I am writing my last post ever.
“Today, I will be ending my own life,” she wrote in the now-deleted post. “I will be doing so in a dignified and idyllic setting in Europe. There are simply no other options left.”
Kassenoff attached thousands of court documents and videos documenting the years of alleged abuse she was forced to undergo from her ex-husband, Allan Kassenoff.
In one video, Allan can be seen standing at the foot of the bed, shouting: “I hate you, Catherine, I hate you. I regret every moment of my life that I met you.”
In another video obtained by the Daily Mail, one of their daughters is crying that she doesn't “want to go with that crazy guy.”
The former couple’s troubles started in 2019, when the custody battle over their three children, aged 9, 12 and 13, took a nasty turn.
Catherine claimed that Allan had spent almost $3-million (about R55m) to ensure that he had full custody of their kids. The result was her losing her job in 2022 and being arrested for violating a protective order.
In Catherine’s Facebook post, she mentioned her third cancer diagnosis and said she was not strong enough to go through “debilitating chemo, surgeries, and radiation again.”
The reason for keeping her terminal illness a secret was because Allan would have “tried that much harder to end my existence.”
Since the now-deleted Facebook post went public, none of Catherine’s friends or family have heard from her, the New York Post reported.
And according to Ms Magazine, Wayne Baker, the executor of Catherine’s estate, said he is awaiting definitive confirmation of her death, which could take four to six weeks.