Life coaches sommit suicide

Police: Life-coach radio hosts commit suicide together

By Lorenzo Ferrigno, CNN

updated 5:38 PM EDT, Thu June 6, 2013

 

 New York (CNN) -- Two life coaches who hosted a radio show called "The Pursuit of Happiness" apparently committed suicide together in their Brooklyn apartment, police said.

Motivational speaker John Littig, 48, and his common-law psychotherapist wife, Lynne Rosen, 46, were found with plastic bags over their heads and a tube attached to a canister of helium, according to police.

Two suicide notes were found, police said.

The manager of the building, Hasan Boztepe, 51, said he smelled a strong odor coming from the apartment and broke down the door Monday morning after no one answered his repeated knocks.

He found the bodies sitting on a couch, holding hands. The canister with an open valve was on Rosen's right, he said.

Boztepe said he also found two suicide notes, one apparently written by a man and one by a woman.

In the man's note, Boztepe remembered the words: "I can't take it anymore, my wife is in too much pain."

"I was shocked. I am still in shock. I feel so bad for these people," Boztepe said.

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He said he knew the couple and stopped by the apartment last week to fix something for Littig. "He walked me to the door and said 'thank you very much.' He was a very nice guy -- and a couple of days later, this."

The couple's radio show, "The Pursuit of Happiness," on WBAI-99.5 FM focused on "personal development, growth and creativity" according to their website. It was an hourlong show airing every other Thursday afternoon.

"RIP Lynne Rosen + John Littig. Partners on air and in life," the station posted Thursday on Facebook and Twitter.

The couple also led a life coaching consulting company, Why Not Now, offering coaching "designed to help foster and encourage your inner strengths," and "put you confidently on the path to designing the life you've always wanted to live," according to their website.

"You should try to do something that scares you every day," Littig said on a show in February.

"People really need to try to implement that into their lives," Rosen later added. "Even if it is small things and it feels scary; but it's a small step and it moves you forward toward your real self."

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