NEW YORK (FOX5NY) – A former playboy centerfold model and her 7-year-old son are both dead after they plunged from a 25th floor penthouse room of a boutique hotel in New York City.

Adams with estranged husband and son

The pair jumped from a window at the Gotham Hotel, said officials, and landed on a second floor balcony.

47-year-old Stephanie Adams and her son Vincent were found at about 8:15 a.m. on Friday.  The model had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with her estranged husband at the time of her death.

A hotel employee who works at a restaurant in the building says the pair checked into the hotel on Thursday morning. 

Police were looking to determine whether Adams had a history of mental illness.  The investigation was ongoing and police stressed the information was preliminary.

The Gotham Hotel is located on 46th Street, about four blocks from Grand Central Terminal, and has 67 rooms over 25 floors. 

Adams was Playboy’s Miss November 1992.  She modeled for Wilhelmina and Elite, according to previous reports.

She was in a custody dispute with her estranged husband Charles Nicolai.   Nicolai’s lawyer told Fox 5 News that his client is “completely devastated” and “Vincent was the center of his life.”

They had been in court on Wednesday and a judge had placed a restraining order on Adams to not leave the country with Vincent.  Attorney William Beslow says she was supposed to surrender the boy’s passport on Friday morning.

Nicolai was supposed to have Vincent with him this weekend as part of a custody arrangement, said Beslow.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.