FL: More On Miami Model's Tragic Suicide.....
Slimpickins
more about the case from today's Miami Herald...
Slim
Published Saturday, July 28, 2001
Model's `Cinderella story' ends in N.Y. suicide
BY DANIEL CHANG
dch...@herald.com
Natasha Duncan's journey to fame began with the Coral Gables Senior High
School drama club and accelerated like a ``Cinderella story,'' in the words
of the modeling executives who discovered her.
That was her gazing out from the cover of April's Mode, the fashion magazine
for women size 10 or larger. Voluptuous in a white Spandex shirt, arms
akimbo, the green-eyed redhead exuded glamour and confidence.
Love Your Shape, the headline read.
But on July 21, Duncan's dream of acting and modeling -- off to such a
promising start -- ended suddenly and tragically in suicide in the kitchen
of her midtown Manhattan apartment.
Friends, family and peers were dumbfounded. Why would a young woman with
such a promising future cut short her life just when she was beginning to
flourish?
``It's really almost incomprehensible,'' said Bobby Kreusler, executive vice
president of Wilhelmina Models, which represented Duncan. ``It's kind of a
Cinderella story.
``She was hired to work in the accounting department, and the agents in our
plus-size division spotted her. They thought she was a beautiful girl and
had great potential, and they convinced her to start modeling.''
In the past year, Kreusler said, Duncan achieved ``tremendous success.'' In
addition to the April cover of Mode, Duncan appears in the August issue of
Seventeen magazine. She recently filmed a spot on Glamour Magazine's
television program, The View, and held coveted accounts with Saks Fifth
Avenue and JCPenney.
``From what we knew of Natasha,'' Kreusler said, ``things couldn't have been
going any better.''
But those who knew the 21-year-old model since her days at Carver Middle
School in Coral Gables said Duncan's rising star masked a disillusionment
whose seeds were planted in her senior year of high school, when she shed
nearly 100 pounds as the first step to living her dream.
``We spoke a few months ago,'' said Eloisa Vladescu, who met Duncan in the
sixth grade and remained close friends with her throughout their years at
Gables High. ``She didn't seem happy. She complained that New York was a
little fake, that people weren't genuine, and she was having a hard time
coping with that.''
After graduating in 1998, Duncan moved to New York, with plans to become an
actress. Duncan's parents, James and Ilona Duncan, sold their Old Cutler
Road home after Natasha, the younger of their two children, moved away. The
parents bought a Winnebago and traveled the country, Vladescu said.
Natasha Duncan attended the Academy of Performing Arts in New York, but she
dropped out after a year.
``She wasn't terribly enthralled with the academy,'' said Marshall Cohen, a
Gables High drama instructor who recommended Duncan as a student. ``So I
knew there was dissatisfaction there.''
Still, Duncan looked happy to Cohen. She visited him every year, he said,
and ``each year she seemed fine, but in the best spirit when I saw her this
May or June.''
Duncan gave Cohen a copy of April's Mode magazine, with her photo on the
cover, and autographed it. ``I remember asking her, `Are you happy?' ''
Cohen said. ``She said, `Very.' ''
Each year that she returned to visit, she seemed to improve.
``I saw a higher self-esteem,'' Cohen said. ``I saw a girl who . . . felt
much better about herself.''
Childhood friend Vladescu said Duncan transformed her body with rigorous
workouts and dieting, with hopes of achieving professional success and
personal happiness. ``She thought that losing the weight would boost her
confidence,'' Vladescu said. But she recalled that Duncan ``was much more
open and confident when she was heavy. She used to joke around a lot.
``Once the weight was lost,'' Vladescu said, ``she started to focus on other
things. Like questioning how fat she was. She found it difficult to make
true friends. She felt like she was a piece of meat. . . . It wasn't her
anymore.''
Those are the very feelings Duncan recorded in her personal diary, according
to police and New York newspaper accounts immediately following Duncan's
suicide. Duncan's parents and her elder brother, Alec, declined to be
interviewed for this story.
But in articles in The New York Post and Daily News, Alec Duncan first
questioned whether his sister's death was a suicide. He told the Post that
he had spoken with her five hours before, and she had complained of problems
with a boyfriend but also made plans to meet Alec in Washington.
Alec Duncan even questioned the brutal manner of her death. Natasha Duncan
had slashed her throat and stabbed herself repeatedly in the chest,
puncturing a lung, said the New York Police Department.
Johanna Edelberg, Duncan's 20-year-old roommate, told police Natasha had
smoked marijuana shortly before her suicide. It is unknown whether Duncan
had taken any other drugs -- the office of the chief medical examiner of New
York City does not release results of toxicology tests, said spokeswoman
Ellen Borakove.
After reading his sister's diaries and learning there were no signs of an
attack or fight, Alec Duncan told New York media he accepted the conclusion
reached by police and the medical examiner.
The diaries, Alec Duncan said, described Natasha's feeling like men were
trying to ``use'' her and that ``she became more self-conscious. . . . She
was very critical of herself.''
Wilhelmina executive Kreusler said Duncan did not exhibit signs of trouble,
such as missing appointments for photo shoots or demonstrating an addiction
to drugs.
``It's a misnomer for someone to say she was living the jet-set life,''
Kreusler said.
``It's very difficult for us to know if someone is disillusioned,'' Kreusler
said, ``because this is a career they've chosen.'' But, he added, ``they
might think it's something other than it is.''
http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/national/digdocs/045799.htm
DedNdogYrs
for women size 10 or larger.>
Why is anything over thin and emaciated-looking considered a "plus size"?
Dogs & children first.
debby
depressed while dieting. It's like going through withdrawl symptoms. It's worse
then trying to get off of herion. Maybe the constant dieting finally got to her.
I think it peculiar that she slashed her throat and stabbed herself, but she
might have been very angry at her body and this is how she expressed it. Is it
possible to do this???? Which did she do first? Stab herself or slash her
throat??? How did she stay concious so long??? Debby S.<sarg...@infi.net>