Ruslana Korshunova, a Kazakhstan-born Russian top model who jumped to her death from her Manhattan apartment in 2008, visited Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious ‘pedophile island’ when she was just 18, newly unsealed court documents have revealed.
Korshunova, who featured in ads for Marc Jacobs, DKNY, and Nina Ricci, was flown on the billionaire’s private jet – known as the ‘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 private island, Little St. James, in the US Virgin Islands, 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 some criticized as special treatment.
Several years after the Russian model’s tragic death, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre received an email from her attorney asking whether she knew Korshunova, according to the New York Post.
Korshunova was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1992 and moved to New York City when she was 15, after being discovered by London-based modeling agency Model 1. Her career included numerous high-profile modeling gigs, appearing on the covers of Russian Vogue and French Elle magazines.
She jumped 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 she displayed no signs of wanting to kill herself, describing her as a cheerful girl who “loved life.”
Others said she kept her problems “bottled up” and felt confused about the direction of her life. She also reportedly complained about a mysterious stomach ailment and lost a significant amount of weight months before her death.
Although Korshunova did not leave a 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 she “would want her beloved Moscow to be her last resting place.”