Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

'Loving Father' Falls to Death on Upper East Side

By DNAinfo Staff on April 4, 2011 6:50am  | Updated on April 4, 2011 6:14am

Keith Mastronardi, 31, reportedly fell to his death from his fifth-floor apartment at 340 East 74th Street Sunday night. Mastronardi left behind three children and a wife.
Keith Mastronardi, 31, reportedly fell to his death from his fifth-floor apartment at 340 East 74th Street Sunday night. Mastronardi left behind three children and a wife.
View Full Caption
Facebook

By Gabriela Resto-Montero, Ben Fractenberg and Nicole Bode

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A 31-year-old husband and father of three fell to his death from his fifth-floor Upper East Side apartment window Sunday night, police said.

Keith Mastronardi, a Wall Street executive who according to LinkedIn worked as head of exotic derivatives at the international firm Vyapar Capital Market Partners, was found unconscious in the courtyard of his apartment building at 340 East 74th Street shortly before 11 p.m.

The Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death an accident on Monday afternoon. The M.E. determined in an autopsy that Mastronardi died from blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities.

"He was an amazingly loving father and he was an equally loving husband. His family is really, really going to miss him," Mastronardi's brother Marc Mastronardi said Monday.

Mastronardi was trying to open his fifth-floor apartment window to let some cigarette smoke out when he slipped and fell, sources said.  Police were investigating whether alcohol played a role in the accident, sources said.

His wife, Debra Milano Mastronardi, was home at the time of Mastronardi's death and was taken out of their home on a stretcher after she collapsed, sources said. The family has three children, including two sons, Tyler and Luca, and a newborn baby girl.

Gianluca Rottura, 32, who owns the In Vino Veritas wine store at East 74th Street and First Avenue, said he was traumatized by the accident, saying he got to know the couple who frequented the store.

"I can't shake it off," Rottura said, adding that they were a "very happy couple, great kids, great father."

Rottura said Mastronardi and his wife celebrated the birth of their baby daughter a few months ago, and said he hadn't seen them around much during the pregnancy.

It was not immediately clear whether the apartment had window guards installed.

A spokeswoman for the city Health Department, which monitors the installation of window guards, said city law requires that window guards be installed in any apartment containing children under the age of 11. A Health Department inspector was scheduled to visit the building Tuesday to check compliance, officials said.

"To prevent falls, City law requires the owner of any building with three or more apartments to install window guards in units housing children under age 11. Window guards are a good idea in any building unit that children visit regularly, and they’re critical in units where children live or attend day care," DOHMH spokeswoman Zoe Tobin said in a statement.

Housing Preservation and Development spokesman Eric Bederman said Monday that neither his agency or the DOH, which oversee window guards enforcement, had received a complaint about missing window guards at 304 E. 74th Street.

Vinayek Singh, CEO of Vyapar Capital Market Partners, said they were respecting the privacy of the family, but added that Mastronardi was "a valued member of the company and a friend to all."

Mastronardi was remembered as a determined academic and dual athlete in track and field and soccer, who attended Chaminade High School in Long Island before heading to the University of Chicago.

"He was a loyal alumnus and a great father and husband," said Father James Williams, President of Chaminade.

Mastronardi graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in public policy in 2002, and was an award-winning athlete on the university's track and field team, where he earned honors as a University Athletic Association Athlete of the Week in his senior year.

Mastronardi, who qualified for the NCAA Division III in the triple jump competition, won his event with a leap of 14.21 meters in Feb. 2002, according to the university's website.

"It's a terrible thing. Our thoughts and prayers are with the wife and the family as they go through this," said John O'Connor, now the head coach at the University of Rhode Island, who recruited Mastronardi when he was with the University of Chicago.

"Keith was a dual athlete, which is an astronomical thing to do these days, to be able to excel in track and on the soccer field. He really developed as a person and as a player," O'Connor added, "He was a great kid. There wasn't anybody who worked harder."

O'Connor said Mastronardi was an inspiration to his teammates, and a solid friend whose untimely death shocked the alumni community.