The young beauty was listed on a 2006 flight along with the infamous billionaire
Ruslana Korshunova wearing United Bamboo Spring 2006 © Thomas Concordia / WireImage
Ruslana Korshunova, a Kazakhstan-born Russian top model who jumped to her death from her Manhattan apartment in 2008, had visited Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious “pedophile island” when she was just 18, newly unsealed court documents have revealed.
Korshunova, who was featured in ads for Marc Jacobs, DKNY, and Nina Ricci, was flown on the billionaire’s private jet dubbed ‘Lolita Express’ on June 7, 2006, two years before her apparent suicide, the Daily Mail reports citing flight logs.
Epstein, who is known for sexually exploiting underage girls on his Little St. James island, was also listed on the same flight along with five other people. He was charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor just a month before the trip and was arrested in July 2006 on a single count of soliciting prostitution, a relatively minor charge that drew criticism from critics for giving the financier special treatment.
Although it remains unknown what happened to the young beauty of the island, several years after her tragic death Epstein’s victim Virginia Giuffre received an email from her attorney asking whether she knew Korshunova, according to the New York Post.
Ruslana Korshunova was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1992 and moved to New York City when she was 15, after being discovered by a London-based modeling agency Model 1. She had a dazzling career with her schedule packed with high-profile modeling gigs and Russian Vogue and French Elle covers in her arsenal.
She leapt to her death from her ninth-floor apartment in June 2008, days before her 21st birthday. At the time it was reported that her friends and family said that she displayed no signs of wanting to kill herself, having described her as a cheerful girl who “loved life.”
Others said that she kept her problems “bottled up” and felt confused about the direction of her life. Reportedly, she also complained about a mysterious stomach ailment and lost lots of weight months before her death.
Although Korshunova left no suicide note, the investigation found a long message on her computer describing how she missed her home and family.
She was buried in Russia with her mother saying that she “would want her beloved Moscow to be her last resting place.”
