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Aspiring Designer Kills Herself In GW Bridge Jump, Reportedly Left List Of People Banned From Funeral
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 7, 2013
Modified Feb 8, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 7, 2013
Modified Feb 8, 2013
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Yesterday afternoon, a young NJ woman jumped off the George Washington Bridge to her death. According to the Post, Ashley Riggitano, 22, "placed her handbag on a walkway at around 4:40 p.m. before leaping from a point midway in the Jersey-bound lanes of the upper level, authorities said." And inside her purse was a "list of five girls she did not want to attend her funeral." Update: One of the people she banned told her last month, "Go try to kill yourself on Xanax again, you unstable loser. Go f--k yourself and never speak to me again."
Riggitano's body was pulled out of the Hudson River (numerous people saw her jump), and authorities found the Louis Vuitton bag with, the Post reports, "pages of handwritten notes that described Riggitano’s torment and that singled out the five people. 'All my other "friends" are in it for gossip,' she wrote. 'Never there.'...The uninvited parties appear to be friends from college or work. According to the notes, it appears Riggitano was bullied by her fashion friends.... She also directed her rage at a man who she said hadn’t treated her well. That person was invited to the funeral, but Ashley wrote she hopes he 'gets what he deserves' when he gets there."
Riggitano, whose family lives in Paramus, NJ, had attended Laboratory Institute of Merchandising and had been interning at jewelry designer Alex Woo. (Her LinkedIn profile also includes The Palisadium USA, Free People, Nicole Miller as previous employment.) She and a friend, Victoria Van Thunen, started a jewelry company called Missfits—"We met in school during a standardized test. This grew into an immediate bond over our anguish at having to spend so much time on the Jersey side of the Hudson. As time went by, we found that our obsessions ran parallel and we began Missfits. Our pieces reflect our addiction to fashion (why couldn’t Alexander McQueen have designed NYC subways? We could all have been travelling to work in a pseudo-Wonderland by now) and passion for cultural trends."
The Daily Mail reports that Van Thunen wrote on Facebook yesterday, "Those who incessantly blame others as the cause of their issues should perhaps take a step back and reevaluate these situations. The common thread may be that “they” aren’t the problem, but rather that YOU are."
Authorities also reportedly found Adderall and Klonopin and the Post says that Riggitano had tried to commit suicide last year.
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone, remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt, and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.
Tagged
ashley riggitano
fashion
George Washington Bridge
hudson river
missfits
suicide
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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