In 2012, Dilek Edwards was hired as a yoga instructor and massage therapist at a chiropractic clinic in Manhattan’s Financial District. The office was owned by chiropractor Charles Nicolai and his wife, Stephanie Adams, a former model. Dilek says her role was strictly professional. She worked with clients, kept a routine, and barely interacted with Adams.
She recalls meeting Adams only once during her time at the clinic. The encounter was uneventful. Nothing about it suggested trouble ahead. Nicolai, her boss, occasionally booked private yoga-therapy sessions with her to help manage his pain from an old injury. He asked her to keep them discreet, explaining that his wife could be sensitive.
Months later, Nicolai made a strange comment. He said his wife might be getting jealous. He thought Dilek was “too cute,” and advised her to keep a low profile. Dilek brushed it off and went back to work.
Then, in the early hours of October 30, 2013, Dilek received a message from Adams. It came in at 1:31 a.m. The tone was sharp. Adams told her she was no longer welcome at the clinic and warned her to stay away from her husband and family. The message ended with, “And remember I warned you.”
Dilek was fired the next day.
She filed a lawsuit shortly after, accusing Adams and Nicolai of gender discrimination and defamation. She claimed the firing had nothing to do with her job performance. Instead, it came from Adams’ belief that she was too attractive to work near her husband.
Her legal team argued that under New York City’s Human Rights Law, gender protections include a person’s appearance, self-image, and expression. Dilek believed that made her case valid.
The court disagreed.
A Line the Law Refused to Cross
The case moved to Manhattan Supreme Court, where Judge Shlomo Hagler reviewed Dilek’s claims. Her lawyers argued that New York City’s Human Rights Law protects people from being fired based on appearance, especially when linked to gender. They pointed to the section that defines gender as including identity, self-image, expression, and appearance.
But the judge narrowed that scope. He ruled that the law was meant to address discrimination tied to gender identity or transgender issues. Jealousy from a spouse, he said, did not qualify. He found no New York precedent that supported Dilek’s argument.
In the written decision, Hagler referenced other court cases across the country. One came from Iowa, where the state’s highest court upheld the firing of a dental assistant because her boss feared he might be tempted to cheat on his wife. The assistant had worked there for a decade. The court ruled that her appearance, not her actions, triggered the firing, and that this did not violate anti-discrimination laws.
The same logic was applied in Dilek’s case. The court said there was no evidence that men and women were treated differently under a company policy. Without that, it could not be considered gender discrimination.
Dilek’s defamation claim faced a similar challenge. After firing her, Adams had filed a police report accusing her of making threatening calls. Dilek denied this. She said the claim was meant to damage her reputation and protect the clinic’s image. But defamation is hard to prove without clear evidence of falsehood and intent to harm.
Still, her case did not end there. An appellate court later reversed part of the ruling and allowed her to continue pursuing her discrimination claim.
By then, however, the story had started to shift. What began as a workplace dispute was heading toward something far more disturbing.
The Fall from the Gotham Hotel
In 2017, Stephanie Adams filed for divorce from Charles Nicolai. The split came after years of tension. Records showed multiple domestic-incident reports, some involving Adams and other women, though not all were directed at Nicolai. Still, the court battles dragged on. They shared custody of their son, Vincent, but the arrangement remained fragile.
The final months of Adams’ life were spent inside legal offices. She switched divorce lawyers four times in one year. Her legal bills kept rising. In May 2018, she filed a request to take her son to Spain for the summer. Her new partner lived there. Nicolai opposed the trip.
On May 23, a judge denied her request. The court also ordered her to hand over Vincent’s passport. The decision upset her deeply. That afternoon, she called a reporter from the New York Post. In a two-minute call, she expressed frustration but gave no hint of what she planned to do.
The next day, Adams checked into the Gotham Hotel with Vincent. They were given the penthouse on the 25th floor. Staff said they never left the room. By 8:15 the next morning, both were dead.
A hotel guest found their bodies on a second-floor balcony. Police believe Adams lifted her son and dropped him first before jumping after him. There was no suicide note.
The news stunned the city. Adams had once won over a million dollars from the NYPD after claiming she was wrongly arrested and roughed up. She had used that money to help fund Nicolai’s chiropractic business. She had also published self-help books, run a wellness company, and insisted she could balance beauty, brains, and business.
But her personal life had unraveled. In interviews, friends described her as protective of her son and distrustful of the legal system. She had chosen to homeschool him. She rarely let him out of her sight.
After the murder-suicide, Nicolai’s lawyer said his client was in complete shock. He had just filed for full custody of Vincent days earlier. Friends said he had been trying to remain patient during the long legal process. He had even insisted on handing over his son at a police precinct to avoid confrontation.
Now, both were gone.
