Suicide suspected as Kazakh model falls to NY death: reports

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A fashion model from Kazakhstan fell from her New York City balcony and plunged nine stories to her death in what police called an apparent suicide, New York newspapers said Sunday.

Ruslana Korshunova, who was to turn 21 on July 2, was known for her long chestnut locks and a "fairytale" face which graced the covers of Russian Vogue and French Elle magazines.

"I turned around just as she was about three feet (one metre) off the ground and then, boom, she hit," witness Ahmed Saad, 22, who was manning a nearby halal food cart, told the New York Daily News.

Investigators found no signs of a struggle inside Korshunova's apartment on Water Street in Manhattan's downtown Financial District.

She had returned to her one-bedroom apartment in...