Sunday 29 June 2008

RIP Ruslana Korshunova

A stunning Russian supermodel plunged to her death from the ninth floor of her lower Manhattan high-rise Saturday, police sources and neighbors said.

Ruslana Korshunova, 20, a long-haired beauty who graced the cover of Russian Vogue, plummeted into the middle of busy Water St. in the Financial District around 2:30 p.m., according to sources and building residents.

Witnesses to the apparent suicide had no idea that the shoeless woman 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. It sounded like a bass drum when she hit the ground," said Steve Metzger, 36. "She was a pretty girl."

Investigators believe Korshunova jumped from her ninth-floor apartment adjacent 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.

Often photographed with her thigh-length locks cascading around her, Korshunova was born July 2, 1987, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She was reportedly discovered in 2003 by Debbie Jones of Models 1, who spotted a picture of Korshunova in an in-flight magazine article about the girl's hometown. "I saw her by chance and she looked like something out of a fairytale!" 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."

She was represented by the agency IMG and has modeled for Nina Ricci, Marc Jacobs and Cynthia Rowley.

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