Who is Leslie Stewart? Mom of Tyler Thorp who fell to death from NYC fire escape recalls her last words
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: As her daughter left their Bronx apartment to head downtown, the mother said, "Be safe." Tyler Thorpe, 26, disappeared with a friend and died hours later in a five-story fall from a Manhattan fire escape around 1 am Friday.
As family members struggled Saturday to comprehend how she could be the second victim of an accidental fall in the city in the last week, Leslie Stewart, Thorpe's mother, recalled the last words she heard from her daughter. “Mommy, I love you and I’ll see you later,” she had said. On May 22, Cameron Perrelli met a similar fate as she fell to her death from a packed New York City rooftop party.
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The devastated parent told The New York Post that she said these words on Thursday evening as she left their Soundview apartment with a friend to join others at a party in Kip's Bay. Hours later, Thorpe jumped from a fifth-floor fire escape as she attempted to reach the roof of the East 28th Street building at around 1 am Friday, according to police. She was pronounced dead on the scene by paramedics.
26-Year-Old Tyler Thorpe Dies After Falling From Fire Escape At Kips Bay Apartment Building https://t.co/EVs8xDRqdV
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) May 30, 2021
Who is Leslie Stewart?
"She was an awesome young lady," Thorpe's mother Leslie Stewart, 51, told the Daily News on Saturday May 29. "Very artistic. Very talented young lady... It was horrible. We had to identify her just now."
“I was sitting right there on that couch,” Stewart recounted. “I said, ‘I love you, Booch.’ And she said, ‘I love you mom.’ I said, ‘You guys be safe.’” Thorpe's family said they had heard about a 24-year-old woman who died on May 22 at a party on Avenue A in the East Village when she attempted to climb from one rooftop to another and fell between two buildings.
Thorpe, an only child, was especially close with her mom and grandmother, Annette Davis, who said the three women had planned to pose for a three-generation family portrait this week. “Fire escapes are for emergency and not for parties," she said. “Even her friends said they were very surprised that she wanted to join them on the fire escape," she added. “She wasn’t a party animal type of person,” Davis said. “She was an introvert. She was very homebodied. It’s such a loss to our family. It hurts so bad.”
James Mitchell, Thorpe's uncle, believes the city should do more to prevent tragedies like this. “We’ve got to stop those rooftop parties that aren’t enclosed.”