June 30, 2008
As Friends Mourn, Model's Death Ruled a Suicide
The medical examiner's office determined suicide as cause of death for Ruslana Korshunova, a 20-year-old model who fell from her Water Street apartment in lower Manhattan Saturday afternoon.
Friends gathered outside the building, crying and leaving flowers. Many reports noted that there was a hole in the construction netting outside her building; Newsday reported, the DOB couldn't "confirm whether the fall caused the hole and, if so, why the netting did not prevent her death." Her current boyfriend, Mark Kaminsky, says she had moved into his Staten Island home soon after they met in March, but she kept her Manhattan apartment.
The Daily News reported Kaminsky "last saw his girlfriend about noon on Saturday, about two hours before" she died. Kaminsky said she was "doing good" and "happy" with modeling. But her ex-boyfriend Artem Perchenok (who had seen Korshunova on Friday night) told the Post, "I think she just gave up" and said she was feeling the pressures of modeling.
She previously wrote about her sadness on a Russian social networking site, things like, "I'm so lost, will I ever find myself?" But Korshunova's mother, who lives in Alamty, Kazhakstan, was shocked, telling the Post, "She's had her ups and downs but never anything that would lead to suicide. This is completely unexpected."
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
[ report this ]
Depression is a harsh mistress. This is sad. Hopefully this girl wasn't be used - but it's the world of modeling so who knows?
[ report this ]
She was pushed.
[ report this ]
r.i.p.
[ report this ]
so sad...
i guess that's the thing about youth. you don't yet have enough life experience to know that things sometimes (often) get better.
[ report this ]
edEx, now that was funny.
It must be difficult working an industry where all you hear is no.
[ report this ]
Is not nice.
[ report this ]
such a waste... she cannot make benefit glorius nation of Kazhakstan now
[ report this ]
No way was it a suicide. Come on NYPD do your job.
To begin with there is the hole in the net,secondly she fell into the middle of the street, not onto the scaffolding below, third no suicide note.
If you are going to take the time to cut out the netting, I'm sure there would be time to leave a note to your mother. Who apparently she loved.
Two very strange boyfriends should be checked out more closely.
[ report this ]
I'm glad this is newsworthy. She was a model, which means she was attractive, which means she's better than us.
[ report this ]
she sure picked a couple of winners. moving to staten island soon after meeting the guy.
Can I haz her Ipod? you know she has one.
[ report this ]
I'm glad this is newsworthy. She was a model, which means she was attractive, which means she's better than us.
At least definitely better than you. You guys never learn. Looks like Jake Dobkin will have to start another purge of posts today. At least she has friends who are mourning her and saying kind things. Judging from your posts, you won't be so lucky.
[ report this ]
there's a lot of truth in what BH wrote.
it only takes a white model's suicide to make Gothamist start moderating comments.
and, I like Jake because from what I've read from his posts he's a real NYC LES native, public school going, fresh egg eating, Stuy grad.
[ report this ]
"I'm glad this is newsworthy. She was a model, which means she was attractive, which means she's better than us."
QFT.
People off themselves every day.
[ report this ]
She's a Slav so she's not really "White." It's all a Jedi mind trick. And of course she's better than us since not only was she a model but she lived down by Wall street unlike you ugly losers who would rather face life in your hovel closet apartment paying 4k/month.
[ report this ]
thankfully Pb is still cheap.
for the rich and the poor, even for us people who are not worthy of living.
[ report this ]
Doesn't it seem possible she was tired of not being able to see from her balcony and that she was tearing a hole in the netting so she could see better and she fell? I don't understand how this was so quickly ruled a suicide.
[ report this ]
Like is difficult to think that models are just devoided of anything meanigful to live for...
[ report this ]
Money doesn't equal happiness.
[ report this ]
Who said that someone cut the hole? I thought she fell through the hole.
[ report this ]
according to what I saw on news footage, the building was covered in that black mesh and on her balcony there was a square hole cut out. or what looked to be a square cut out.
[ report this ]
What is the matter with you people? We have seen plenty of reporting about suicides, and they were not all models. It's YOU who have only taken notice this time because she was a model.
I guess you're jealous, and in total bad faith, which is sad because most models are pretty, but not very good at taking care of themselves, and very prone to depression and manipulation by the people they think are their friends.
When did being pretty become a license to be a target? Do you think a pretty girl has no feelings or something? Do you think she deserves to be sad or should be made to feel sad?
Why don't you get over your own sadness and stop hating people who you THINK have it better than you? Everyone is subject to insecurities and depression, no matter what they look like or how much money they have, rich or poor, pretty or not.
Your bad feelings are eating your hearts out, and it's really ugly to witness here in your comments.
[ report this ]
Save your breath, cucarachita. Or your fingers, as it were. The trolls will never stop. Your best bet is to report them as Jake Dobkin suggested yesterday. He's promising some kind of permanent solution soon. With luck, it will include repeat offenders being banned from Gothamist, IP addresses and all. It's not in Gothamist's best interests to allow this to continue. Such crude and crass comments have the potential to drive away many readers, most of whom will never register on the site to voice their disgust.
[ report this ]
will this new policy extend to the crime posts?
or will those get a pass?
[ report this ]
Jacquemehoff makes a great point. If we can't have this thread be like every other thread on this board, then all of the incessant blame the victim racist tripe has to go too.
I stand by what I said above, this is pretty white girl syndrome in fucking action and if you don't cop to that, then you're a fucking hypocrite yourself.
And I'll say again: People off themselves every day of the week.
Why is this news?
[ report this ]
@spirit
It appears all this individual wants to comment on is his dislike of comments from other individuals.
Granted there are some off color comments, but in general they reflect a view that is not normally voiced in this PC world.
[ report this ]
The reason it's news is because the victim was a young white beautiful female and the incident occurred in a high profile neighborhood. That is what sells papers.
People do not want to read about some fat aged ex government employee that got gassed in their garage in Astoria overnight.
[ report this ]
agree with Snoopy [26]. stepping outside this particular story, essentially anyone into hot chicks looks at her picture and says "damn, that chick was hot. what a waste."
We also wonder what could have made someone who won the genetic lottery want to take her own life, while the rest of us manage to plod along trapped in our less-hot shells.
Same when shit happens to the ultra-rich. It isn't that it's really a greater loss on a personal level-- the survivors of your average suicide victim suffer as much as this girl's survivors-- but it's certainly of much greater interest to the masses when someone young, beautiful and/or rich dies, or if there is some other context to make the story stand out.
Just this past week, there were headline stories about a 15 year old girl who was stabbed, a 19 year old girl killed by a drunk driver, or the teenage boy who was killed in a shooting. If those had been 50 year old guys, it wouldn't be a headline, because it doesn't seem as tragic (unless he left young children behind or something). Sean Bell caught headlines and was labeled a tragedy because he was killed on his wedding day. If he had been killed on any other day no one would have noticed.
[ report this ]
Spot on Eyekant. A good example is the Heath Ledger death from an OD. How many die across the country every day from an OD and very few give a shit.
[ report this ]
which is why the SCOTUS made the correct decision in DC v. Heller.
molon labe.
[ report this ]
#22 - Yes, I also look forward to a day when all posts are regulated to meet the status quo. When free thought is extinguished and differentiating opinions nullified. Where trolling looks bad to advertisers and CSS rules the day. The end of Anarchy and the birth of the New Gothamist Order. Entartete Kunst!
[ report this ]
I don't care if this is newsworthy, or that she was a model or even a woman. My post about it being so quickly ruled a suicide was simply about the circumstances of a human being's death. It could have been a impoverished resident of the projects. My point is it doesn't seem like an obvious suicide.