New York Daily News

Suicide eyed in woman’s East Harlem roof plunge

- Laura Dimon With Erin Durkin

POLICE ARE investigat­ing the fatal plunge of an East Harlem woman as a suicide, cops said Monday.

Authoritie­s initially were looking into whether Yanina Boitel, 33, was a victim of foul play.

She and her boyfriend had been on the roof of the Jefferson Houses complex on Third Ave., near E. 113th St., at the time of the fall, police sources said.

Cops found Boitel on the ground outside her building at 9:30 p.m. Saturday after she’d plummeted 14 stories. Medics rushed her to Metropolit­an Hospital, but she could not be saved.

“We have a third-party witness who observed the entire incident on the roof of that building,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Monday at a press conference.

“Basically, he supports the narrative given by the boyfriend, so that’s where we are right now.”

Boitel’s family members, including her sister Carmen Reyes, said they had heard the couple had gone out drinking and gotten into an argument shortly before the deadly fall.

“The case is not over by a long shot,” Boyce said. “It appears to be a suicide at this point. But again, the investigat­ion is open.”

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