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A model hugged her mother goodbye and seemed “happy” just three hours before plunging to death from a Times Square rooftop bar on the 54th floor.
Elizabeth Gaglewski, 26, had reserved a table at the bar at the downtown Hyatt Centric and ordered a drink before allegedly climbing over a barrier as horrified staff tried to stop her.
Police are investigating whether the ‘sweet and nice’ girl jumped or whether her death was an accident after landing on a 27th-floor balcony on Wednesday.
Friends said Elizabeth seemed “happy” before she left the family home in Queens, but that she previously “struggled with depression.”
She had a chat with her mother, Hope, three hours before she left for the bar, and the family had “no idea” anything was wrong.
Her boyfriend, David, has paid tribute to her as the “most beautiful person in the world who ever lived.”
He told DailyMail.com: ‘The system has let her down. She needed help and she didn’t get it.’
Elizabeth Gaglewski, 26, hugged her mother Hope, left, hours before plunging to death from a 54th-floor rooftop bar in Manhattan
The aspiring model appeared ‘happy’ before leaving the family home in Queens, while relatives ‘had no idea’ anything was wrong
Police are investigating whether the ‘sweet and nice’ girl jumped or whether her death was an accident after landing on a 27th-floor balcony on Wednesday.
Elizabeth died on Wednesday when she fell from a rooftop bar in Times Square onto a 27th-floor balcony
Neighbor Sony Beauville said, “She’s a friend of my family. Her mother told me before she left that she hugged her and they spoke.
“She told her she looked good and everything sounded good. No one worried about her or thought anything was wrong.
‘Only forensics can determine whether it was an accident. We do not know. She had been ill for a while and probably had depression.’
He added that Gaglewski had worked for her aunt’s modeling company, but the work was slow.
Relatives have described her as a “good person, a sweet and loving, caring child,” and her mother Hope shared a touching photo of the couple online.
The bar staff tried unsuccessfully to grab Gaglewski before she fell 27 stories and landed on a ledge of the skyscraper hotel.
Other eyewitnesses told police that the woman was seen “jumping” to her death around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Friends told DailyMail.com that while Elizabeth seemed ‘happy’ before she left the family home in Queens, she had previously ‘struggled with depression’
Elizabeth, pictured with her other mother as a toddler, was seen on the phone, climbing on a piece of furniture and then jumping over the edge of the patio.
Spectators were shocked to see Gaglewski jumping from a Times Square bar onto the roof. The 26-year-old landed on a balcony 27 floors below and was pronounced dead at the scene. Medical researchers watch woman’s body being removed
Bar staff unsuccessfully tried to grab Gaglewski before she fell 27 floors and landed on a ledge of the skyscraper hotel
She was seen on the phone, climbing on a piece of furniture and then jumping over the edge of the terrace.
A Hyatt employee told the New York Daily News: “She walked right past me and I thought nothing of it. She was a young girl with a bar reservation.’
Explaining what happened next, the worker added: ‘It is easy (to jump) because the tables and chairs are close to the glass.
‘She said nothing. Everyone came running and said, ‘She jumped! She jumped!’ At first I thought they were playing.
The cleaning lady on the 27th floor heard the crash and found her body on the balcony. We’re lucky she didn’t land on the sidewalk. It’s crazy.’
The bar is described as ‘above the bright lights of Times Square’.
Gaglewski jumped from the rooftop bar on the 54th floor of Hyatt Centric in Times Square
The balcony where 26-year-old Gaglewski died on Wednesday at Bar 54
Eyewitnesses told police the woman was seen ‘jumping’ to her death around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday
The horrific incident happened just before 3:30 p.m., with emergency services finding 26-year-old Gaglewski unresponsive and unconscious on the balcony. Pictured: Hyatt Centric hotel
Its website calls it New York City’s “tallest open-air hotel rooftop bar.”
Emergency services found her unconscious and unconscious on the balcony and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her official cause of death will be determined by the city’s medical examiner.
Police have not said whether the woman was a guest at the hotel or visited the bar, which requires reservations.
Standard rooms at the Hyatt location cost more than $600 a night, with the bar closed for the rest of Wednesday, according to a hotel employee.
In a statement, Hyatt Hotels Corporation General Manager Tom Blundell said: “We are deeply saddened by the situation that has occurred at our hotel this afternoon and our thoughts are with the family of the person and those affected.
“We are working closely with local authorities and all inquiries should be directed to the New York Police Department.”