Remembering Elizabeth's Words and Voice; Mark Madoff Found Dead After Apparent Suicide
FEYERICK: And breaking news from New York this hour, convicted swindler Bernie Madoff, the man who orchestrated one of the biggest Ponzi schemes of the century, his son, Mark, has been found hanged in his apartment in Manhattan. His death an apparent suicide. Our Susan Candiotti is with us live from New York. Susan, apparently it was his father-in-law who found him.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is right, what a stunning development in this case that has been going on for such a long time. I would like to point out to you, first of all, Deborah, that we're standing in front of the apartment building where Mark Madoff's body was found, 45 years old. You can see there is a police van located here, but if you look up, count up to the fourth floor apartment, his apartment takes up that entire floor and that, in fact, is where his father-in-law discovered his body. According to police, these are the circumstances. The discovery was made about 7:30 in the morning, Saturday morning, this morning, when the father-in-law came here and found Mark Madoff hanging from a pipe in the living room, a black dog's leash was hanging around his neck. It belonged to the family pet, according to police. And what happened they say is this, that sometime before Mark Madoff's death, he, police say, sent an e-mail to his wife who was not home at the time. She was in Florida. In this message, in the e- mail, Mark Madoff, according to police, said, someone should check on our son. Their 2-year-old son was asleep in his bedroom at the time. That's when Mrs. Madoff called her father. He came over to the apartment, and made the discovery, found the body fully clothed hanging from the ceiling. Of course, police responded right away. The father-in-law called the authorities, they came over, conducted a crime scene investigation to help determine the circumstances surrounding the death and the medical examiner will be performing an autopsy to confirm the cause of death of an apparent suicide sometime on Sunday, tomorrow. At this time we don't know whether any kind of suicide message or note was left. Police say they are still looking into that. We can certainly tell you this, he has had some rough times, Mark Madoff has, along, of, course with other family members. Certainly, his father was serving a life sentence in prison. Back in 2009, August of 2009 a trustee who has been trying to recover funds -- October of that year, rather, that he filed a lawsuit against Mark Madoff as part of the attempt to recover money that had been lost in this biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. We don't yet know whether Bernie Madoff has been notified in prison. We're trying to find that out as well as get reaction from his mother and his brother who lives in New York -- Deborah.</s>FEYERICK: Susan, this family was so respected in New York City financial and social circles. It was such a huge fall from grace. You wonder whether, in fact, it is a coincidence that Mark Madoff chose to take his own life two years to the day that his father told everyone that in fact this major, $50 billion business that he had was, in fact, nothing more than a sham. So interesting about that suicide note, but also, e-mailing his wife to let her know that the son, their 2-year-old son needed to be checked in on. Certainly, an interesting twists as well, Susan.</s>CANDIOTTI: Exactly. A lot of curious circumstances surrounding that, a lot of open questions. You point them out quite rightly. Was this more than a coincidence that he apparently decided to hang himself on the second anniversary of the arrest of his father? Was this preplanned? All things that police want to know and certainly will be talking about for some time to come as they try to get to the bottom of this.</s>FEYERICK: OK. Susan, thanks.</s>CANDIOTTI: We also have for you, Deborah, a statement that was released, if you have time for it, a statement from the attorney representing Mark Madoff. Here is what he said, quote, "Mark Madoff took his own life today. This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy. He said Mark was an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo. We're all deeply saddened by this shocking turn of events." And that is how the statement ends. You'll recall that Mark Madoff has never been criminally charged in this case, though, of course, he was the subject of many civil lawsuits. Of course, there are many people who believe that it would be nearly impossible that he and his brother did not know about what was going on. But as we say, as of now, he had never been criminally charged in the case.</s>FEYERICK: OK. Susan, thanks so much for that great reporting. Clearly, what a tremendous fall from grace. OK, we'll check back in with you a little bit later. In this hour, Elizabeth Edwards funeral. Friends and family are gathering. You see her there being eulogized. They are going to remember the remarkable life of Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards. She died Tuesday after a six-year battle with cancer. Her daughter, Cate, is expected to speak about her mom and the love that she had for her family. Three children left behind. We'll be with you on that later. Also, Josh Levs joining us now. Josh, those closest to Elizabeth Edwards, obviously, honoring her life today. Many viewers are responding as well. She had a very interesting connection with them, and really used the Internet to reach out to many people. Moms and dads who lost someone, but also people who are suffering with cancer as well.</s>JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is right. So many people with so much to say and I've been reaching out all morning online. We are hearing from a lot of people. Let's start off with an iReport, a video someone sent us remembering Elizabeth Edwards.</s>OMEKONGO DIBINGA, CNN IREPORTER: Let's focus on the strong women she was, let's focus on what she did to fight for health care, let's focus on what she did to raise awareness for breast cancer and research. This was a hero in her own right.</s>LEVS: Getting a lot of that. Now, I also have here what a lot are writing us on Facebook and Twitter. Let's go to Facebook here. "Classy beyond words. The epitome of dignity and grace in the face of devastating tragedy." That is from Fred Julien. Here is another one, "I believe she was an inspiration to those she knew and met as well as to all that she touched in life. Rip, rest in peace Elizabeth Edwards." That is from Chad Forsgen. Let's get a couple more of your messages here. "She looked like Jackie, she held her head high. First class and then some," from Saletta Coleman. "Elizabeth was an intelligent, powerful and beautiful woman. She did not slip into the shadows despite all she was facing but kept herself in public view to try to help as many people as possible. She was amazing."" That is from Nicole Daniels. One more here. "Her first priority was being a mother and that she was," from Penelope Harmon. I'm going to get in one tweet before we go. From Kevin Arpree (ph), "Elizabeth Edwards was a fighter. I wish her family well." Here is how you can join in. I'll show you my page here, Facebook, Twitter, blog. I also want to end giving you a quote from Elizabeth Edwards, something a lot of people have talked about and a lot of people posted online. We have that for you there on another screen. This is one of her amazing quotes. She said, "Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it. You can do nothing but scream about what you've lost or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good." A lot of people remember her words, her wisdom today. I know we'll continue to hear from you all day, Deb.</s>FEYERICK: Absolutely. Josh, I tried to get a copy of her book. The bookstores were sold out. Amazon.com said it would take three months to get it. I borrowed somebody's Kindle and downloaded this. She said, there's no such thing as perfection. We have a choice about how we integrate the imperfect in our lives. Certainly a realist. We are going to be watching as friends and family gather to remember the legacy of Elizabeth Edwards. That is happening now. Her daughter Cate expected to remember her mom, what she meant not only to her growing up but to her younger siblings and Emma Claire and Jack as well as the family at large. We'll be back with you soon.