Woman’s Death at 27 Shocks Her Friends in Banking and Charities

At a fairly young age, Jessica Fashano had dedicated much of her life to helping others, heightening her commitment to charitable work as she rose in the banking world.

She spearheaded fund raisers for the Acumen Fund, which makes small-business loans to people in developing countries. And just in the past month, friends said, she helped coordinate a fund-raiser at a West Village boutique for Harboring Hearts Housing, a charity that provides lodging at modest prices for cardiac patients.

The notion that Ms. Fashano, 27, an investment banking associate at Citi Global Markets, often gave so much to others made it all the more tragic that she would take her own life on Saturday in Manhattan.

According to the police, she entered a West Side apartment house that she did not live in, took an elevator to the roof and jumped to her death.

It did not take long for word to spread, and for the ripples of puzzlement to reach Washington, where classmates from Georgetown University had gathered for a wedding, as well as Boston, Silicon Valley and Chicago, where friends and former colleagues now lived and worked.

“She just had everything someone could want to be successful,” said Michelle Javian, a friend. “She was always the leader, had everything organized,” Ms. Javian added.

Whether she was renting a limousine to help a college friend celebrate recovery from a long illness or, via e-mail from a vacation in Greece, checking on a charity event she had helped put together, those who knew her said she seemed to care more about others than about herself.

On Saturday afternoon, stunned friends joined Ms. Fashano’s two roommates at her apartment on West 53rd Street before everyone left for the night.

Her apartment was about 16 blocks south of the residential tower at 180 Riverside Boulevard, where surveillance video showed her walking in on Saturday morning.

A resident said she was returning from walking her dog and rode up with Ms. Fashano in the elevator. Dressed for the cold in Ugg boots and a winter jacket, Ms. Fashano asked the woman how to get to the roof which has views of the Hudson River and New Jersey, where Ms. Fashano grew up. The resident, who declined to be identified, said Ms. Fashano seemed alert and aware.

At 8:13 a.m., the police found her body in an internal courtyard, where she was pronounced dead. The police said they did not suspect foul play.

Why Ms. Fashano chose the Riverside Boulevard building is among the many questions surrounding her death. She left no note, and although the police said she was undergoing treatment for depression, friends and associates said she was always in high spirits.

“It’s like something just changed overnight,” said Ms. Javian, who said she spoke to Ms. Fashano daily and was supposed to have had brunch with her on Saturday morning. “Something just snapped, and we don’t know.”

Ramzi J. Ramsey, a former Citigroup mergers and acquisitions analyst who worked with Ms. Fashano, said word of her death came as a “pretty big shock to me, because she honestly had one of the biggest hearts that I knew.”

He added that she led the bank’s fund-raising campaign for The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund in 2008.

“People are usually so involved in what they’re doing that it’s tough to get everyone’s attention,” Mr. Ramsey said, adding that Ms. Fashano’s popularity helped drive the effort.

According to her profile on Acumen’s Web site, Ms. Fashano was inspired by “The Blue Sweater,” a memoir by Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen’s founder, who devised a philosophy of using entrepreneurship to fight poverty.

When the fund-raising arm of the Acumen Fund was looking for new people to help manage more than 500 volunteers, Ms. Fashano “was really a natural pick,” said Nina Sharma West, a co-chairwoman.

“Whenever anyone wanted anything done, we could always lean on Jess,” Ms. West said. Since July 2009, she added, Ms. Fashano was instrumental in organizing three events that helped raise over $50,000 for the fund.

Ms. Fashano, who grew up in Whippany, N.J., hoped eventually to work full-time for private nonprofit organizations after accumulating more skills in finance, Ms. Javian said.

But in the interim, her ever-present smile, with bright brown eyes surrounded by long, dark hair, could already be seen in news of charitable events in the Hamptons and Manhattan. And she could also be heard.

“If there was a room of 30 or 40 people, you would definitely know if she was there or not,” Mr. Ramsey said. “I don’t want to say louder, but she had a very unique laugh.”
Al Baker and Mosi Secret contributed reporting.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/nyregion/20suicide.html?_r=1)