TRAGIC FAREWELL
Vessel jumper left ‘Insta’ note
A 24-year-old Brooklyn woman who jumped to her death from the Vessel in Hudson Yards had written a gut-wrenching farewell on Instagram — and it has now appeared online after her suicide.
“If you’re reading this, I’m gone,” Yocheved Gourarie wrote in the post, which she had scheduled to run one day after her tragic leap.
“I hope you can find some comfort in knowing I am no longer in pain,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, Gourarie, of Crown Heights, rode the subway into Manhattan and bought a ticket to the Vessel, a popular tourist attraction.
She did not bring a suicide note, but had taken with her “information making it easy to ascertain who to contact,” a law-enforcement source told The Post.
Reaching the highest level of the structure, Gourarie — who had chronicled online her struggles with anorexia and depression — climbed onto the railing and jumped, police said.
EMS, responding to a 911 call, pronounced Gourarie dead at the scene.
She had scheduled her final Instagram message to post the next day — a modern-day suicide note full of gratitude, desperation and wry humor.
“Hey…. I guess if you don’t know by now you should probably sit down,” she wrote.
“If you’re reading this, I’m gone. Either that or somehow incapacitated in the hospital so I can’t delete this scheduled post. I really hope I’m not though.
“I don’t care to go into the reasons why I’m gone, but there are certainly more than thirteen. I scheduled a note to send to my parents posthumously…. Even just publishing this may pain them.
“I don’t want to do that, I just want to leave my last mark on this world.”
She concluded, “All of you have made my life so much more full, brighter, and happier than it would have been without you. Your support, your encouragement, your hugs, your invitations, your smiles, your texts, your tagging me in memes you think I’d find funny.
“None of you could have done anything – or done more – to prevent this from happening. You all did your absolute best and for that I am eternally grateful. I hope you can find some comfort in knowing I am no longer in pain. “I love you.” Religious singing could be heard Saturday from inside Gourarie’s Crown Heights home, where loved ones gathered for a Jewish shiva service. Family members declined to speak to reporters.
According to her LinkedIn page, Gourarie earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and neuroscience at CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College.
The week before her death, she posted a heartbreaking, clearly treasured clip of herself singing “Moon River” as her composer and musician father, Avremi, played an electric piano.
Earlier Instagram posts reveal she had openly shared her struggle with mental illness and expressed gratitude for the support she had received. She praised the National Eating Disorders Association, urging people to contribute to the organization at national eatingdisorders.org.
Gourarie had spent two months at Center for Change, “a wonderful residential facility in Utah for women struggling with ED,” or eating disorders, her father posted to Instagram on Friday.
“We are only finding out now how she gave of herself to others and how many lives she touched,” he wrote. “I guess I should feel blessed that we [were] given 24 short years to have and to hold her.”
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya and Joe Marino
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, you can get help by contacting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-2738255.