22 YEAR OLD JEWELRY DESIGNER FROM NEW JERSEY LEAPS TO HER DEATH FROM THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE ON HER BIRTHDAY

ASHELY RIGGITANO 22

Reports of the suicide of a young jewelry designer from Paramus from the George Washington Bridge yesterday missed another sad fact: It was her birthday.
Ashley Riggitano, who turned 22 yesterday, went over the span on the northbound side of the upper level just before dusk, leaving behind a long note citing five people who she said wronged her — as igniting a stream of stories that are likely to continue for awhile.
Riggitano recently was graduated from the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising in Manhattan and had just come back from a trip south.
She also attended a fundraiser last month for little Nico Santoli, who is fighting a rare form of childhoood eye cancer, at Seasons Restaurant in Washington Township.
The New York Post went into great detail about the death, including excerpts from Riggitano’s note — such as her inviting a man she said didnt’ treat her well to her funeral, so that he “gets what he deserves” — which was found in a Louis Vuitton handbag that she left behind.
Riggitano, who worked as a public relations/wholesale intern for Alex Woo, launched her own jewelry-crafting company, Missfits, in 2011. She and her best friend, Victoria Van Thunen, made the jewelry.
“Even when I was a little girl I always knew I wanted to be a designer,” she wrote on their Facebook page. “I always had the desire to start up a jewelry line and what way better than to start it with my best friend and partner Victoria.’
Yesterday, Van Thunen wrote what is now a cryptic message on her own Facebook page:
“Those who incessantly blame others as the cause of their issues should perhaps take a step back and reevaluate these situations. The common thread may be that ‘they’ aren’t the problem, but rather that YOU are."