Ruslana Korshunova falls from Manhattan building in apparent suicide
June 29th, 2008
Stunning Kazakh fashion model Ruslana Korshunova plunged to her death from the ninth floor of her lower Manhattan building yesterday (Saturday) in an apparent suicide, police sources and neighbors said.
Ruslana, 20, a long-haired lovely who once graced the cover of Russian Vogue, plummeted onto busy Water St. in the Financial District around 2:30 p.m., according to sources and building residents.
“There’s no way she would have killed herself,” said her crying friend, Kira Titeneva. “She loved life so much.”
Witnesses to Korshunova’s deadly spill had no idea that the stunner - shoeless and dressed in blue jeans and a purple tank top - was a famous model but noticed her beauty right away.
“All I saw was something moving out of the corner of my eye, and then boom,” said Steve Metzger, 36. “It sounded like a bass drum when she hit the ground.
“She was a pretty girl.”
Police said her family had not yet been notified.
“She was my best friend,” Titeneva said. “I talked to her [Friday] night and we were talking all the gossip.”
Investigators said there were no signs of a struggle inside Korshunova’s apartment and believe she jumped from her balcony, which is next to a skyscraper construction site, a law enforcement source said.
“I turned around just as she was about 3 feet off the ground and then, boom, she hit,” said witness Ahmed Saad, 22, who was manning a nearby halal food cart.
Dubbed “fashion’s muse of the moment” by the Sunday Times of London in 2005, Korshunova distinguished herself with locks of hair that once draped down to her thighs.
She was often photographed with her mane cascading around her.
Long hair is a symbol of beauty in Kazakhstan, where she was born in the then-capital city of Almaty on July 2, 1987.
“She was like an angel,” Titeneva said. “She was just working, working, working.”
The friend said Korshunova had recently returned from spending a few weeks in Paris and did not appear troubled.
A doorman at her 12-story building - where Korshunova lived for months in a studio converted into a one-bedroom - said the model seemed happy when she came home about 4 a.m. Saturday.
“She came in this morning, she smiled, no sense of depression,” said Mahmoud Nakeeb, 45. “She was a very sweet girl, always smiling, never depressed-looking.”
Nakeeb said the green-eyed Korshunova was very down-to-earth, often dressed in simple pants and shorts. He had no clue she was an international model. “I feel bad,” he said. “My heart is broken.”
Korshunova’s elite modeling agency, IMG, was grappling with the tragedy last night and gathering information about her death and work schedule.
“We’re shocked and our heart goes out to her family,” said spokesman Zach Eichman.
The nearly 5-foot-9 model’s interest in German led to her discovery in 2003. A journalist from All Asia magazine visited her German language club and featured her photo in a story, according to an article in Continent, a Kazakh magazine.
During a flight, booker Debbie Jones of Models 1 spotted her picture in the magazine and called the article’s author for help in tracking Korshunova.
“I saw her by chance and she looked like something out of a fairy tale!” Jones told British Vogue. “We had to find her and we searched high and low until we did! She’s really incredible, with feline features and timeless beauty.”
source: NYdailynews, various
28 Comments Add your own
1. murat bocek | June 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
i so sad, good sleeps most beautiful girl.
2. A. Moyo | June 29th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
My prayer are with all those that this Angel left behind. She was a God send to earth and I hope that she is resting in peace in the loving arms of the great God who created her.
3. Mark | June 29th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
this is a sad day. such a young life taken away like this. my prayers are with you and your family. rest in peace. xxx
4. anastasia | June 29th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
i am so sad…i was crying all day…but i have to say that it is a pity to lose so beautiful girls.it’s a pity to die so awful…she was so young to die.i hope you to being in peace wherever you are now.and you must know that we LOVE you!!!!!goodbye to you…we will be always with you!!!bye…
5. steven rainbow | June 29th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Too dreadful an event for mere words,please pray for this poor girl’s soul and for her grieving family and friends.
6. sam | June 29th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
We should all care very much just because she was good looking. The human gene pool has suffered a great loss and now we will all be slightly more ugly in the eyes of God.
7. jon paul | June 29th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I did not know her personally; however, Ms. Korshunova had that affect on people–like we all knew her somehow–down to earth and one of us. Fashion has lost one of its own, again. My prayers are deep for her and her’s; now she is with her Angelic own…
8. Sarah | June 29th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Sam, how poetic of you! *sarcasm*
Ruslana had more to offer than her looks, and I am praying for her family.
9. fran | June 29th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
gute reise!
10. Sherry | June 30th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Ms. Korshunova was stunningly beautiful and she will be deeply missed in the modeling world. My heart goes out to her family. God bless you Ruslana!
11. Audrey | June 30th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Why? If she seemed so happy. Someone ought to know why? Friends? Co-workers? Associates? Most importantly, may her beautiful soul rest in peace.
12. lucie | June 30th, 2008 at 6:45 am
She was so beautiful just like an angel, Its a sad that she had to go so young she had the world in her hands. God bless her family and give them strength.
13. Amutha | June 30th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hope your soul rest in peace Ruslana,i dont know you personally but from the comments i read,you’re classfied as wonderful person..its a lost to the modelling world..God bless your family and you will always be loved..
14. Elin | June 30th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Not an external factor ( beauty, health, wealth etc.) can make a person happy, not even another person can reach out an pull you into happyness. It comes from within.
If you can love
Nothing changes
Except that you can love
Nothing and nobody will ever give you anything except an opportunity to love, now
15. Michelle | June 30th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Quote: “such a young life taken away like this…”
She took it herself. Yes, it is tragic, but it was her own choice. Too bad everybody interviewed in the article says they “did not expect this to happen at all” and that “She loved life so much”. Maybe the fact that no one sensed her real feelings is exactly the reason she did not want to live anymore.
16. mark | June 30th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
or was it suicide? sounds a little strange to me. my prayers are with her family.
17. ay | June 30th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
she was so young and she had her whole life in front of her…
very very sad and she was soo beautiful and pretty nice…
18. Thursday's Child | June 30th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Whether Ruslana Korshunova killed herself or not remains to be seen. Deliberately throwing oneself off a balcony is not generally the method of choice.
No one really wants to die. People only think of suicide when they feel they don’t have any other choice and most do not commit suicide in private where nobody knows. Telling is telling-revealing. Most talk about wanting to die, because they want someone to give them a way out other than death. Most people commit suicide because they’re in pain.
My name is Hunter. I’m a spokesperson for a national hotline for teens at 1 (800) USA KIDS. We’re here 24/7 or teens may Skype me. My Skype username is huntingtonsmith. I’m online a lot but not constantly. My email is hunter@thursdayschild.org. The number for adults, the National Suicide Hotline, is 1 (800) 273 TALK. Our website is at http://www.thursdayschild.org (mouseover photos and text).
The teenage years especially are times of emotional transition. There’s a lot of having to grow up all at once that takes place. Suddenly, there are more responsibilities. There’s high school and the thought of college. When we go to school as teens, there’s no longer the sameness of sitting in one classroom with the same kids and the same teacher everyday. Now, we have to race from class to class. Everything is different. And then there’s sex and that’s all confusing. I mean, not long ago we used to hate the opposite sex or at least we pretended to and now we’re not only supposed to be liking them, but maybe or maybe not getting parts of our body invaded by them and all of those other things that seemed so unthinkable when we first learned about the facts of life. Our bodies change. Our minds change. But we are all immature. We don’t know how to handle situations. We don’t even know how to handle the thoughts that go through our minds. We feel awkward about relationships. We don’t know what we feel. But in it all, there is an awful aloneness, no matter how popular we seem to be.
Most of us can handle it. But some of us, a lot of us, can’t. Each of us has felt suicidal at some point in our teens and the ones who don’t are liars. We all cry. We each hurt. But most of us have friends that are there for us to help us through those times. Teens do kill themselves. It happens a lot more often than it should. It happens because no one was there with them at the right time to say just the right words. But it’s important to talk. It’s important to hold and to be held. It’s important to cry and let it all out. Things always change. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t always an oncoming train. If you’re feeling suicidal, seek someone out. Sleep helps if you’re alone. You will feel better afterwards. And if you know a teen who’s talking about death, see if you can get his or her parents to help, Counseling is beneficial, but it isn’t a cure. Direction is. Give someone a reason to live and death becomes unthinkable. Joke with them. Make them laugh. Make them see something special in themselves.
19. M | June 30th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Maybe if she had more in her life beside looking pretty and actually contributed to society she would have had more to live for.
20. sam | July 1st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Why does everyone feel like this is such a great loss? Do you know how many people die everyday? It’s in the tens of thousands. And a lot of these people die of much more significant reasons than suicide: murder, genocide, starvation, etc.
Just because she has a pretty face, she makes the news. Just because she makes the news, it’s everyone’s duty to give a shit that she killed herself.
Here’s a link to a video showing her dead body, with blood creeping out of her mouth. It was aired on FOX news.
http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=b177b169-37b8-40b2-a663-703f235483ce
Anything to keep us spending money, right? Why would I want to watch the news about complicated and thought provoking matters when I could watch this shit and think to my stupid self: “Oh, gosh. That’s so tragic. Such a pretty girl. Tsk tsk tsk. Pray pray pray.” And you all gobble it up.
21. mark | July 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
sam your a sick prick
22. Olga Jasanovska | July 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Very wrong to assume that when somebody smiles, suffers no depression. The strongest people don´t show their real state of mind..I understand it must be difficult to work in such a jungle in such a business, may be she would be happier at home. Why does everybody think that working and having money and fame is the most one can get???
23. Celeste | July 3rd, 2008 at 4:49 am
She may have just had a sudden urge. I’ve seen this before in my young 19 year old cousin. One minute he was happy and 15 minutes later he was dead hanging in his closet. These sudden urges are real. I experience it of and on, the urge is to driver myself off of a certain freeway overpass. I avoid that route.
As insane as it sounds!
God bless her beautiful soul, Celeste
24. Daniel Spears | July 3rd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I love you forever Ruslana :.(
Kiss
Daniel Spears
25. anastasia | July 4th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
sam,maybe you are right but some things must be kept for ourselves instead of telling to everybody.maybe she has many problems and she desided th kill herself.it is very important to me at least to killed heself but,if it don’t give you any sense tha she died,then you’d better not writting in this page.we are writting here to say that we are sorry.you aren’t.so don’t write anything about her.ok???i think you understand…
26. Andy | August 16th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Dear freinds, you can contribute to an independent private investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Ruslana Korshunova.
May God bless you with a long life!
27. anelia | September 5th, 2008 at 3:53 am
@sam:
I didn’t know Ruslana outside of the fashion magazines (and adverts) she appeared in, but personally I think her death IS tragic. And do you know why I think that? Exactly BECAUSE the world is such a pile of shit - like you said - full of sickness, suffering, and death. She was one of the very few remaining unspoiled and beautiful things out there, someone so stunning, that one could not help but smile when seeing her. I am a girl too, and I can say that I honestly admired her, without any hesitation or petty jealousy or whatever. Unlike many models, starts, wags, celebs - and god knows what else there is nowadays - she was truly beautiful. And true beauty is so rare, that it should always be respected and admired… and mourned when it’s lost. Especially since her suicide was NOT something done on a whim or caused by an abuse of substances. It most likely brought about by stress from the pressure she had to endure from the shallow people who dominate the modelling industry.
But I could hardly expect YOU to grasp such intricate matters! So I’m going to sum it up for you nice and short:
She, a beautiful and talented young girl, is gone forever.
You, a cynical philistine, on the other hand, are still here, spreading your hate-filled comments.
Surely that’s tragic.
28. Latiff Napoleon | November 30th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Ruslana died a few months ago but she still lingers on in my head, mainly about her whole beauty as a person. I am a fashion photographer and I must admit, modelling is not easy as some people might think. Posing in front of a camera is quite easy but when it comes to dealing with the people in the industry is bloody hard work. Its full of pretentious and power freaks people, arse licking, back stabbing, etc..
Ruslana was young and unfortunately didn’t have much time to find her true self due to her busy schedules and having a boyfriend who is also young didn’t really help her much. I am not blaming him for her death but I would say that he has to learn hell of a lot too…about love! To give love and knows the meaning of what love really is and to separate lust from it. Ruslana didn’t get much love as she expected, no one understood her and no one was giving her the true love that she was looking for. We all need love..God created us with love and He gave us everything in this planet for us to learn about how powerful love is. Love can destroy everything but itself. We need to give love in order to receive love.
My heart is a place of a prayer and Ruslana will always be in my heart.
God bless
One love,
Latiff
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