Former Miss USA takes suicide jump from skyscraper

Sopuruchi Onwuka, with agency reports

Former American beauty queen who also worked as a lawyer took her own life Monday by jumping off a high rise building in Manhattan, New York.

She was last seen on a terrace 29 stories above the ground.

The 30 year old Cheslie Kryst, who won the Miss USA sash in 2019, left her family, friends and fans in grief as her body lay on the sidewalk outside the Orion Condominium building in Midtown just after 7 a.m.Late

Local media reported that late Ms Kryst lived on the ninth floor of the building, and sources in the New York Police Department confirmed that she died by suicide, leaving behind a note in which she bequeathed her possessions to her mother.

She had given a hint to her suicide in an Instagram post  where shere whished her soul peace and rest.

“May this day bring you peace and rest,” she had posted just hours before her fatal fall.

The 30-year-old began competing in pageants as a teenager, following in the footsteps of her mother, April Simpkins, who was crowned Mrs. North Carolina US in 2002. Kryst remembered being in middle school and watching Simpkins “clean up all these awards” in a 2020 interview with The Charlotte Observer.

“I didn’t have a lot of friends, I was a nerdy weird kid who just liked to read during class, and it was so cool that people knew my name because of my mom,” she said. “And so from that moment, I knew I was going to compete at some point in time.”

Kryst won the Miss USA title in 2019, just months after she’d clinched the Miss North Carolina USA crown. While competing, she remembered in a 2021 essay for Allure magazine, she spoke openly about her views “on the legalization of marijuana, the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, anti-abortion laws, the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and the successes and failures of criminal justice reform.”

“I openly supported the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and marched in protests over the summer,” Kryst continued. “I wasn’t searching to collect more awards or recognition during my reign. Rather, I fed the passion that made waking up each morning feel worthwhile: speaking out against injustice.”

At 28 years old, Kryst became the oldest woman to ever be crowned Miss USA. She went on to also become the longest-reigning victor, thanks to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, holding the title for a record 557 days.

Outside of pageantry, Kryst practiced as a civil litigation attorney, having earned her law degree and an MBA from Wake Forest University. She worked as a global impact ambassador with Dress for Success, a nonprofit supporting low-income women searching for jobs, and wrote about business attire on a blog called White Collar Glam.

After her Miss USA win, Kryst also became a New York correspondent for celebrity and entertainment program Extra. Her work on the show garnered her two Daytime Emmy nominations.

“Our hearts are broken,” a Sunday statement from Extra read. “Cheslie was not just a vital part of our show, she was a beloved part of our Extra family and touched the entire staff. Our deepest condolences to all her family and friends.”

In her Allure essay, Kryst said she felt “giddy” about “laying the groundwork” for her future. Having hit her third decade, Kryst wrote, she was “searching for joy and purpose on my own terms—and that feels like my own sweet victory.”