Jewelry designer and fashionista Ashley A. Riggitano killed herself yesterday by jumping from the George Washington Bridge. Several witnesses watched in horror as she plunged into the Hudson River.
She placed her handbag on a walkway at around 4:40 p.m. before leaping from a point midway at the Jersey-bound lanes of the upper level, authorities said. Her body was pulled out by the harbor patrol shortly after she jumped.
The beautiful and young 22-year-old left her Louis Vuitton bag containing a “suicide diary” that included a list of five girls she did not want to attend her funeral, sources said.
The Post reports that authorities found “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.’ 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.”
Ashley Anne Riggitano was born on February 6, 1991, and lived in Paramus, New Jersey. She was a recent graduate of the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising in Manhattan and had been interning at jewelry designer Alex Woo. She had also interned at some high-profile fashion companies including Tommy Hilfiger and Nicole Miller, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Recently Riggitano had started her own jewelry business, Missfits, with friend Victoria Van Thunen (picture below).(by the way her name was in Ashley Rigintano’s list)
“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 traveling 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. Adderall is used for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or narcolepsy while Klonopin, is used to control seizures in epilepsy and for the treatment of panic disorder. The Post says that Riggitano had tried to commit suicide last year.
Her family, reached at home in Paramus, N.J., would not comment on the tragic incident.
READ: Alison Tanari- Friend in Ashley Riggitano’s note
Teresa Castaldo – one of Ashley Riggitano’s list of five friends
She had two Facebook profiles, find them by clicking here and here. Find her LinkedIn profile here. Her company’s Facebook page here. Also visit her Missfits website here. And check her o Google + here.
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