UN names woman who fell from building

AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/18/08 | John Heilprin - ap

[NormsRevenge]

UNITED NATIONS - The woman who died after falling from the U.N.'s Secretariat Building was a 44-year-old employee of the World Health Organization's International Computing Center, a U.N. spokeswoman said Monday.

U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe identified the woman who fell from the 19th floor Sunday as Maria Gabriela Di Biase.

Police and U.N. security officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the woman had jumped from a window after showing up to work early in the morning.

Okabe said there was no suspicion of foul play. The police said they are still investigating. The official cause of death was to be determined by the medical examiner.

Di Biase, who has dual Uruguayan and Austrian nationalities, worked on the floor for the cooperative that provides computing and communication services to U.N. agencies. Employees would not discuss her death, though several recalled her as a friendly, likable woman.

United Nations security guards found her body Sunday morning on the lawn, several dozen yards away from the building, overlooking the East River. New York Police Department detectives and a medical examiner were summoned to the scene.

[txhurl]

This is alarming.

[WashingtonSource]

Did she have anything on the Clintons?

[Uncle Miltie]

Can you say “whistleblower?” I knew you could.

[Uncle Miltie]

Can you say “whistleblower?” I knew you could.

[lmr]

It's not the fall that kills you, most generally, it's that sudden stop at the end.

This is a bit unnerving. I was curious... Does the U.N. have it's own police force for the building or do they call NYPD to investigate this 'suicide'?

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

My first thought...

[martin_fierro]

Sad.

[lmr]

Nevermind... Should have read the whole thing.

[nicmarlo]

Police and U.N. security officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the woman had jumped from a window after showing up to work early in the morning.

Bizarro.

[NativeNewYorker]

several dozen yards away from the building

Okay...all you folks who remember HS physics...how much forward momentum must someone have to land "dozens of yards" from the foot of a tower from which one has leapt from the 19th floor? Assume for the moment that the ground at the tower's base is flat.

[Xenalyte]

DiBiase isn’t a common surname. Ted was the only other one I could recall.

[txhurl]

It is sad. Trying to find the initial thread from last night.

What’s alarming is the WHO angle.

[spyone]

Sorry, don’t buy any of it.

[Diogenesis]

She was probably pushed.
Like the murder of Barbara Wise, this will go nowhere.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Yeah, she was moving at a good clip when she launched. I wonder what “several dozen yards” actually amounts to.

[the invisib1e hand]

Okay...all you folks who remember HS physics...how much forward momentum must someone have to land "dozens of yards" from the foot of a tower from which one has leapt from the 19th floor? Assume for the moment that the ground at the tower's base is flat.

pertinent question. without dusting off the old formulas, common sense suggests it would require roughly the same horizontal momentum as a running broad-jump of "several dozen yards." What's the world record these days?

[the invisib1e hand]

the UN probably has that effect on some people.

[txhurl]

Six yards? Or less?

[Myrddin]

Assuming one "story" is 15 feet, the drop was 285 feet. The duration of the fall would have been about 4.2 seconds. Running at about 12 MPH would have resulted in an impact point around 30 ft from the base of the building (assuming no wind contributions).