The 35-year-old woman who fell to her death when her 17th floor balcony collapsed was enjoying a nightcap with a man after their first date at a nearby restaurant. "There was a man who was hysterical and crying by the elevators. He told me that he and Jennifer were on their first date," one neighbor told The Post. "They had just gotten back and she was showing him her apartment. Then he said they stepped out onto the balcony and had a drink. She was leaning on the balcony, then the railing gave way and just snapped."
Jennifer Rosoff's body was found by a police officer on a scaffolding 15 floors below. After interviewing the unidentified man, NYPD investigators ruled out foul play, and it's not believed that excessive alcohol consumption played a role in her Rosoff's death. “He advised her not to sit on the rail,” outgoing NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Daily News, which has vivid photos of the broken balcony. “She said that she had done it before and wasn’t worried. She didn’t think it was a problem.”
(Courtesy NY1)
The Department of Buildings is still investigating, and the city issued a vacate order for all balconies in the building, located at 400 East 57th Street. "It really makes no sense that the railing would break because this building is just about perfect," resident Pearl Harrison, 86, told the Post. Another neighbor, Sara Shubert, tells CBS 2 the balconies are very narrow: 'You’ve got about two feet or less. It’s for standing and smoking and looking at the moon or whatever.”
Rosoff, who grew up on Long Island, was director of sales for the media advertising firm TripleLift, and previously worked at The New Yorker and Cosmopolitan magazines. “She was very successful in everything she did," her cousin tells the Wall Street Journal. "She was very driven. She was a lot of fun to be with. She will be missed."
