Ruslana Korshunova was a young supermodel from Kazakhstan living in New York. The gorgeous waif landed several magazine covers with her natural long locks and gorgeous green eyes. Sadly, the young up-and-comer is suspected to have taken her own life on Saturday. She reportedly leapt off the balcony of apartment in New York.
Ruslana Korshunova, 20, whose face graced the cover of French Elle and Russian Vogue, apparently jumped from her ninth-floor apartment in her Water Street building in the Financial District at 2:30 p.m.
[NY Post]
Ruslana was represented by the modeling agency IMG – The same agency that is responsible for Heidi Klum and Kate Moss. She walked the catwalk for Donna Karan, Nina Ricci and Marc Jacobs. She also appeared in ads for Vera Wang and Dior. Jill Stuart and Betsey Johnson were among many designers that employed the green-eyed girl when she was a mere 17 years old. British Vogue had also taken notice of the beauty in 2005 naming her “a face to be excited about.” Korshunova earned the nickname “The Russian Rapunzel” due to her fairytale-like looks.
Friends and family of Ruslana are baffled as to why she would take her own life. She “loved life” according to a close friend. Those who were close to her insist that she never has had a wild child streak or abused drugs. Currently the fatal fall is being ruled a suicide. The police found no evidence of a struggle and construction netting around the balcony appeared to be “deliberately ripped.” Her boyfriend had dropped her off at her one bedroom apartment around 5 in the morning after they finished watching the movie “Ghost.” Her loved ones are unconvinced that she jumped on her own.
Korshunova’s best friend, Kira Titeneva broke down when she arrived at her pal’s apartment late last night.
“We were talking on the phone last night,” she said. “She loved life so much. She was an angel.”
Titeneva, who grew up in her pal’s hometown, said Korshunova “wasn’t wild. She was never on drugs or anything.”
Another friend said that Korshunova seemed to be “on top of the world.”
“There were no signs,” said the pal who did not want to be named. “That’s what’s driving me crazy. I don’t see one reason why she would do that.”
[NY Post]
Even the doorman of her building said she entered the building and gave him a quick smile that morning. He insists that she never seemed depressed and was always smiling. She wrote passages on a social networking site that shared advice and life lessons. Poems she shared all centered around the emotion-fueled subject of desire and love.
Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably,” the sandy-haired knockout wrote in a poem that concluded: “And never regret anything that made you smile.
In her last and most recent entry she wrote about the difference between love and desire, warning not to confuse the two. However, three months ago her writing was more somber, stating that she was “so lost” and questioning if she would ever find herself again. In January she wrote about feeling hurt and wished to “fly.” Then in March Ruslana entered a post that was full of anger and frustration stating, “I’m a bitch. I’m a witch.”
“I’m a bitch. I’m a witch. I don’t care what you say!!!” she wrote March 11. “I know what it is. I know why my other relationships didn’t work out, ’cause I’m unpredictable. Why are you afraid of it?”
Such a tragedy. I feel terrible for her family and their loss. The fashion world will be a bit dimmer without her.
Note by Celebitchy: In the article I read, they called the guy she watched Ghost with that night her “ex-boyfriend.” It sounds suspicious to me, but they also say it looks deliberate and like there was no foul play. We’ll have to see what comes out of the investigation.
Update by Celebitchy: She spent her last night with an ex, but Korshunova had a new boyfriend who she was living with. The NY Daily News has more details.
Thanks to the Huffington Post for these photos.
Look how beautiful she is. This is chilling.
Someone should have make sure she is o.k. from her agency. She was so young.
I seriously have a hard time believing this was a suicide. People that knew her said she showed no signs of depression before. Maybe she took some LSD or something. That can certainly make you crazy enough to jump off a balcony. Or maybe she just broke up with her boyfriend and went a little crazy. Or it could have just been an unfortunate accident where she dropped something and thought she could get it without falling. I just think it’s a little soon to label this a suicide.
I won’t speculate about the circumstances, but I will say she has a hauntingly beautiful face – absolutely stunning. She may have been the next Heidi Klum if not for this tragedy.
My thoughts and prayers go out to her friends and family.
Perhaps she read some of the comments about Kurkova being “fat”. Models don’t have thick skins. They can’t. They’d get torn to shreds on gossip rags like this one because of the extra ounces it’d add to their weight.
I can only hope that she wasn’t aware of anything after she hit the ground. A good friend of mine attempted suicide that way. He didn’t succeed immediately. He survived for 3 days, completely aware of what happened, what was going on around him, and the fact that he couldn’t do a thing about it, which was like a neverending nightmare for him. Thankfully, he passed away shortly after.
Really sad. Who knows what pressures a 20 year old girl living thousands of miles away from home in one of the most volatile and high-pressured industries might have been under.
CB, why is ‘ex-boyfriend’ suspicious? Do you mean he broke off with her and it might have caused her suicide? Or are you hinting at a jealous ex-boyfriend who may have had something to do with her ‘suicide’?
Korshunova was most certainly no next Heidi Klum: she did quite a lot of catwalks and had a much slimmer figure than Heidi (Klum has often repeated that she wasn’t built for the pure catwalk modeling and couldn’t fit into most of the clothing by haute couture designers). She was immense and most certainly in the footsteps of Natalia Vodianova for example…
A gorgeous beauty that was breathtaking.
This is a very sad loss.
I do not blame agencies (especially IMG who does offer a lot of care and assistance to their young models) for these sad situations.
Let’s see what the police finds out if there is anyting to find out. Apparently, there has been no suicide note or letter found for the moment.
Suicide is a tragic yet very personal happening. It isn’t up to us to judge so easily on what could have pushed someone to commit it (if it was a suicide).
The sad reality that as happy as one can appear on the outside, no one knows what struggles go on within the soul. I don’t feel right to speculate about anything; my heart goes out to her devastated family and friends.
I hope the media gives her family the privacy to grieve. This is truly sad for such a young girl with so much beauty.
How very sad for those who knew and loved her best. My thoughts and condolences to the family
what a sad thing…i lost my cousin two years ago. he killed himself. it´s always the ones you would not expect. my thoughts go out to her family…bless her.
Like fine crystal, beautiful, delicate and fragile. Such a shame. 🙁
My dream is to fly. Oh, my rainbow it is too high….This is not a suicidal text…. It is lyrics from the song: My Dream Is To Fly Over The Rainbow So High… Go figure….
What a beatiful woman. What a shame this happened, she had a great career ahead of her. I don’t think it was a suicide though.
This wasn’t a suicide. Point blank.
She might have slipped or something even though it is highly unlikely.
Wow, that catwalk photo of her shows such presence.
As to what happened – a member on mydeathspace.com – (forum and subsection on articles – I think she’s in the main myspace members, otherwise it’s in the Non-MDS sub-section on top) (but don’t visit if you’re sensitive about death or think discussing it is disrespectful. Just don’t) quoted something that a man who claimed to have heard her falling said on another private forum.
It’s disturbing but does give an possible insight. Of course the man could have been making stuff up.
It is a horrible tragedy for a 20 year old with their whole lives ahead of them to die, no matter what the circumstances.
I think it’s sad that people seem to feel it’s more tragic because she was beautiful…everyone’s life is special for more than aesthetic reasons.
For the person who mentioned the suicide note–I have taken classes in criminal forensics run by police officers and was told that it is very common for suicides NOT to leave a note–at least half the time they do not.
Yes, I, too, would be suspicious of the “ex-boyfriend” who just happened to be there when she chose to do this, but cops are not stupid (and are more suspicious than most people) and if there is any evidence of foul play they will look hard for it.
^ I agree that it stings a bit when people seem to place more importance on the death of a beautiful person than an average person. I guess attractiveness really is the gold coin of human worth.
However, it’s always sad when a young person with all the potential in the world dies so young. I hope the police are able to confirm if it was a suicide or not.
Perfect example how even with beauty, fame and wealth, life can still be a nightmare for some. What a tragic waste. I had made a point some time ago in another post which I received a lot of flack for. I stated that often those who are really serious about suicide don’t act depressed or speak of feeling suicidal. This is an example of the point I was trying to make. 🙁
A commenter astutely noted already it’s always the ones you don’t expect. I only knew one person who committed suicide and I saw him hours before he did it. I assure you there was no way of knowing he was even a little down. In fact, sometimes once someone makes that decision they might even seem ebullient; they know they will no longer feel acute psychological anguish and perhaps feel relieved.
It should be noted not all suicides succeed. In fact, people have fallen from similar heights, even higher and lived. Incapacitated, paralyzed perhaps. Or just in a coma. To me that is worse than dying.
Depression has no face. I understand the comments saying all life is precious regardless of ones looks. True. But I think what is happening here is someone young, well off and truly beautiful would still be able to do this. What does that say? It flies directly in the face of the notion money and physical perfection = happiness. In this society in particular we worship these things and aspire to achieve status and beauty. And yet it isn’t enough.
I hope it makes us less likely to make assumptions about people we don’t know based on their shell. They could be screaming inside and we’ll never hear it.
So it goes.
My condolences to her loved ones.
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.
I agree that it stings a bit when people seem to place more importance on the death of a beautiful person than an average person.
There’s this illusion in this world that if you’re young and beautiful that you should have everything at your fingertips, and your life is perfect- and when that illusion is shattered by a suicide and desperate cries for help that went ignored beforehand- it’s unsettling.
Most women who commit suicide do it with pills. Rarely do they us a gun or jump or do it in some violent manner.
Let me just clarify the above: women do jump but do so off cliffs or something that involves water so they don’t disfigure themselves. That’s the key point – they don’t take a dive onto the road.
They should seriously investigate this. That being said, if she was under the influence, who knows.
“women do jump but do so off cliffs or something that involves water so they don’t disfigure themselves.”
^^for alot of beautiful women, the very thing that everybody thinks makes your life perfect (beauty) can be a very big burden…you never really know who loves/likes you for you. it almost seems as if a suicide of this manner is befitting to a woman who’s beauty may have just become too much for her to handle. ofcourse as others pointed out this is completely fabricated from imagination land and sadly we’ll never know. Appreciate life everybody, it is so so precious.
or the russian mob did it…. who knows but the girl just got back from some major shoot and nobody had a clue she was depressed? Ya know EVERYONE knew Gia was depressed. Something here is rotten.
http://www.petitiononline.com/ruslana/
She didnt comit suicide she jumped off cuz she was taking drugs and she thought she could fly
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