'WE WANT TRUTH' ON SHOCKING 'SUICIDE'
Grieving kin cast doubts Grieving kin cast doubts
When George Salti last spoke to his daughter, 18-year-old NYU student Doreah Salti, she had just returned from a museum field trip and was debating where she should go study.
Less than three hours later, she lay dead on the cold New York pavement after plummeting five stories from the university’s Barney Building on Stuyvesant Street.
First responders rushed her to Bellevue Hospital, but the promising young college student didn’t make it.
Doreah’s Feb. 10 death was a complete, utter shock to her heartbroken family. Earlier that same night, she’d been asking her dad if he’d bought the opera tickets they’d talked about. “I’ll get them today,” George told her. He told The Post he had no idea that the pleasant Saturday evening conversation was the last they’d ever have.
A police spokesperson initially told The Post it appeared that Doreah had jumped.
But officials said this week that the “investigation remains ongoing.”
George, a 57-year-old surgical oncologist at Edward Hospital in Naperville, Ill., said he never believed his daughter killed herself.
Nor did his wife, Maria, a 53-yearold pharmacist.
Now the grieving parents say they just want the truth.
And they’ve hired a private investigator — and retained the services of Cohen & Gresser, a prominent international law firm — to help them find it.
There was no mental health history, no [suicide] note, no bad grades, no substance abuse, no family history of mental health issues. She was fine . . . she was normal on that day. — Doreah Salti’s (right) father George
‘Sounds like foul play?’
“There was no mental health history, no [suicide] note, no bad grades, no substance abuse, no family history of mental health issues,” George said in an exclusive interview. “She was fine . . . she was normal on that day.”
Maria echoed this, telling The Post the family was “100% confident Doreah would never take her own life.”
“It never occurred to us for even one second that Doreah would do such a thing,” she said. “She would never, ever.”
George said he spoke to a city medical examiner, who told him she didn’t think his daughter jumped because her head, hands and wrists were broken — an indicator that she tried to protect herself as she fell.
“She went head-first and covered her face,” George said. “Somebody who covers their face is trying to protect themselves, they are not trying to kill themselves.”
Neither her legs nor her pelvis were broken, he added, which is common among jumpers.
“The medical examiner indicated she does not think she jumped,” he said. “I said, ‘It sounds like foul play.’ And she responded, ‘Or an accident.’ ”
Since then, the medical examiner’s office has told the family it’s “still a pending investigation,” he said.
A representative of the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner echoed this in a Thursday email to The Post, saying the case is “pending further investigation at this time.”
Medical experts told The Post that although broken wrists may be a little unusual, an avalanche of facts and observations go into making a final manner-of-death ruling.
That includes the victim’s mental health history, medications and toxicology reports, according to Dr. Priya Banerjee, a board-certified forensic pathologist.
“When I approach a case like this, there are so many questions that come into play,” Banerjee said.
“If it’s a fall or jump from a height, the injuries can often look the same. If someone jumps, you can get ankle fractures,” she said. “Breaking wrists is a little unusual for a fall, and makes
me think they were conscious and had their arms extended to break the fall.
“But other than that, I don’t make much of it,” she said. “I have seen a multitude of injuries result from falling or jumping from a height.”
Both of Doreah’s parents are immigrants: George was born in Jerusalem, while Maria hails from the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Together, they settled in Hinsdale, Ill., an affluent village of about 20,000 perched 20 miles west of downtown Chicago, and raised their twin daughters, Doreah and Isabella.
The family said Doreah seemed destined for a dazzling future — and not just because of what her dad called her phenomenal academic prowess.
“Doreah was a bundle of joy,” Maria told The Post. “She was intelligent, funny, joyful, creative, a deep thinker, always looking forward — a dynamo.
“She always brought laughter to the family,” she continued. “Part of her college essay was about being a stand-up comedian. She was witty, she was smart.”
Isabella described her sister as a “happy, happy 18-year-old” who always had big dreams.
The twins shared many of the same friends, she said. And each one has told her that Doreah would never kill herself.
‘She was all my life’
Doreah had ordered all kinds of things — bathing suits, sunglasses, jewelry and outfits — for the twins’ spring trip to Miami to celebrate their 19th birthdays on April 3.
Even now, the packages keep arriving, the family said.
She and her dad also planned to see the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on March 1, according to the family.
Doreah had already coordinated her outfit, and mapped out where they were eating dinner the next night: Carbone on Thompson Street, a high-end Italian place, they said.
She’d also been planning to go home to Chicago for Presidents’ Day weekend, and bought tickets for the opera at Lyric Opera House on St. Patrick’s Day, her relatives said.
When the family went to her dorm room to collect her things after her death, they found her clothes packed and ready to go.
Doreah had also been admitted to NYU’s summer program for artistry in Paris — Isabella was making plans to stay with her for a bit before heading on to Italy — and was researching post-graduate programs.
Just before she died, she’d been working on a portrait of a woman, according to her parents. Then it was all over. More than 1,000 people attended her Feb. 17 funeral at the St. George Orthodox Church in Cicero, Ill., George said.
And it’s been nearly impossible for her shattered family to pick up the pieces.
“Losing a child is a disaster,” Maria said, sobbing. “Words fall short of describing what losing a child is like. We have to deal with the pain and the questions.
“She was all my life,” the distraught mom added. “My kids were all my life. I’m a pharmacist, but I don’t work. I wanted to bend so they could climb on top of me and reach.”
Tragic ‘assumption’
That’s why it’s so important to find the truth, she said.
“How could we live not knowing what happened?” she asked. “Nobody saw her jumping, they assumed. And we have to deal with the consequences of that assumption.
“We don’t want to speculate, we want the truth based on facts,” she continued. “This is the least I can do for my daughter.”