A top Russian model, who died by suicide, was one of the many teens who flew on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's private plane to his "Paedophile Island", according to Epstein files, the thousands of pages of court documents unsealed recently.
Ruslana Korshunova jumped from the ninth floor balcony of her posh Wall Street apartment in New York in 2008, nearly two years after she supposedly boarded Epstein's "Lolita Express" plane and accompanied him to his private island located in the US Virgin Islands where he was known to sexually abuse young girls.
Flight logs show Korshunova, a model who had worked for top designers and brands like Marc Jacobs, DKNY and Vera Wang, was just 18 when she boarded the convicted paedophile's private on June 7, 2006.
The trip took place just weeks before Epstein was arrested. On the plane, Epstein and Korshunova were accompanied by his bodyguard, personal chef and assistant. Another woman later identified as a former UFC fighter Stephanie Tidwell was also on the plane.
No details exist on what happened after they reached the island where Epstein was known to organise sex parties allegedly involving celebrities.
"Russian Rapunzel"
20-year-old Kurshunova, who was known as "The Russian Rapunzel" for her long, flowing hair and was touted to be the next big thing in modelling, was suffering from "problems" that she often kept "bottled up", her ex-boyfriend had told The New York Post after her death.
Before her death she left messages talking about problems in her love life and how she missed her home and family. Her ex-boyfriend said she had lost a lot of weight a month before she died and was struggling to balance her personal life with her work.
"I think she just gave up," he said, adding that the young woman had told her manager that "she didn't know what to do with her life."
