A married couple who taught their children about the power of faith leaped to their deaths in a tragic double suicide in New York City on Friday.  It is reported that they committed suicide because of financial difficulties.

The bodies of chiropractor Glenn Scarpelli, 53, and his wife Patricia, 50, were found lying in the street close to the Empire State building early in the morning as people arrived for work. 

They are believed to have jumped from the window of Glenn's former office on the ninth floor of an office building at East 33rd St, near Madison Avenue. 

They were the parents of daughter Isabella, 20, and Joseph, 19, both former students of Loyola School, a Jesuit-run Catholic school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to the Daily Mail.  Isabella currently attends the Austin, Texas, based Catholic college, St Edward's, the website said.

In a suicide note found in his pocket, Glenn wrote: 'We had a wonderful life....Patricia and I had everything in life.'

However, he also described the couple as being in a 'financial spiral'.  'We can not live with' the 'financial reality,' the letter said, according to the New York Post.

Patricia had a separate suicide note that said: 'Our kids are upstairs, please take care of them.' 

According to the Daily Mail, Glenn had debts of around $213,000 with the federal government and nearly $42,000 in unpaid taxes owed to the state. 

The website said the parents used to help organize the annual benefit for their kids' Jesuit school.  Its report detailed an essay written for the school magazine by Joseph who said his 'proud Italian-American family' attended their local Catholic church on a weekly basis.  

According to the Daily Mail, the essay also described how Glenn and Patricia encouraged faith in their children. 

'My parents repeatedly told me that I could wake up one day and lose every material possession and everyone I love, but no one will ever be able to take away my faith,' it is reported to have said.