The Staten Island mom who died when her minivan plunged over a cliff – with her two young daughters in the back seat – did not commit suicide, members of her church insisted yesterday.
They said Hejin Han’s death was a tragic accident, even though cops busted her husband, Victor Han, on charges of helping his wife kill herself – amid revelations that she was despondent over his affair with another woman.
“I don’t believe it,” said Pastor Myung Ok Lee, of the Korean American Presbyterian Church of Queens.
“I don’t think it was intentional. I don’t think she would do something like that,” Lee said.
The girls, Ariana, 5, and Etana, 3, survived with only minor injuries because they were buckled into child-safety seats in Wednesday’s tragedy at Bear Mountain.
Church elder Young Young added, “People can make mistakes sometimes. She might have touched [the gearshift] and it went down [the precipice]. A fence would have stopped this,” he said
“They were a very happy family,” Young said, despite reports that Victor Han, a Sunday-school teacher, was seeing another woman.
He added the suspect is “a good father. He loves his children very much. He was always carrying and hugging them. Hopefully, he will come back soon.”
Yesterday at the Staten Island home of his alleged lover, Tiana Yin, photos of her beau could be seen inside the house. Recently, neighbors said the illicit lovers were seen arguing.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan