A 26-year-old Wisconsin native fell to her death from her roof in Inwood early Tuesday when she tried to climb down the fire escape while apparently drunk, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the incident said.
The woman, Kasey Jones, was drinking with friends on the roof of the Vermilyea Avenue apartment, near 207th Street, when she decided to climb down at about 2:20 a.m., the official said. She fell about five stories.
The Superior, Wisconsin native appeared to have moved to New York last year and started working as a barista, according to her Facebook profile. Jones posted that she was moving to Inwood from Brooklyn in February.
Amy Joscelyn, 25, worked with Jones at 60 Beans Coffee …amp; Tea in Astoria from the end of last summer until December.
“She was always really sweet and fun to work with,” Joscelyn said. “I always looked forward to the days that she was here. I just remember how excited she was that she moved to New York City and how different everything was.”
Joscelyn said everyone who worked with Jones liked her, and that she always appeared to be happy.
Jones would often post photos from the rooftop, looking down. In one image from her Instagram account she photographed a Spotted Cow, a beer from Wisconsin, casually hanging on the ledge.
“Foot’s eye view,” she captioned one image on June 9 showing her feet over what appears to be a fire escape.
“It scares the bejesus outta me whenever you post these ‘casually leaning over the edge’ pics,” one friend commented on the photo.
“Well I have a lot of whiskey to help me out,” Jones wrote back.
By Tuesday afternoon, several people had posted messages of condolences on her Instagram photo.
“RIP. I’m so heartbroken,” one person wrote. “You were a wonderful soul who touched so many lives. You will be missed.”
Neighbors of the Inwood apartment building said Jones would often go up to the roof, a practice that seemed to have started after she moved in a few months ago. John Vidal, 25, owns flower shop around the corner and helped Jones move in to the building.
“She was a cool girl, always nice,” Vidal said. “I’d always see her on her bicycle.”
Dereck Rose, 22, said he would often see Jones on the block and say hello. He said she was very friendly.
“No one really drinks on the roofs,” he added. “She and her friends started that. You really gotta be careful.”
The Upper West Side coffee shop, Plowshares Coffee Roasters, where Jones currently worked, according to her social media profile, posted a notice on the door Tuesday evening, telling customers they were closed “due to an emergency.”
