Joseph Brooks

Joseph Brooks

Academy Award–winning composer Joseph Brooks was found dead in an apparent suicide on Sunday at his Upper East Side apartment. Brooks, who won an Oscar for writing "You Light Up My Life," faced a string of sexual-assault charges and eleven counts of rape, having allegedly lured women to his apartment using an online ad offering auditions for a film role and sexually assaulting them after making them drink drugged wine as part of a fake acting exercise. The 73-year-old's son, Nicholas Brooks, is in jail, charged with murdering his girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay, at the Soho House in December. Joseph Brooks reportedly penned a suicide note, which has not been released. Details from the scene, via the Post:
A friend with whom the elder Brooks was supposed to have lunch went up to the apartment at 12:30 p.m., found the door ajar and walked inside — discovering Brooks’ limp body sprawled on the living room couch, police sources said. The songwriter’s head was encased in a dry cleaning bag that had a tube attached to a helium gas tank nearby. A towel was wrapped around his head and neck.