Ruslana Korshunova Flew on Epstein's Jet to the Virgin Islands at 18 and Died Two Years Later After Falling From Her Ninth-Floor New York Apartment

Claim 1: Ruslana Korshunova visited Jeffrey Epstein's island when she was 18

Verdict: True that she flew to St. Thomas on Epstein’s jet at 18. “The island” is the usual inference from that flight, not a landing recorded on Little St. James itself.

• Who: Ruslana Sergeyevna Korshunova was a fashion model represented by IMG, with ads for Marc Jacobs, DKNY, Vera Wang, and Nina Ricci. English-language coverage called her Russian, Kazakh, or Kazakh-Russian. Fashion Model Directory lists her as Kazakhstani. Wikipedia, citing Russian reporting, places her birth in Uelkal, Chukotka, with the family later in Almaty.
• Age on the flight: Fashion Model Directory gives her date of birth as July 2, 1987. AFP reporting the week she died said she was about to turn 21 on July 2. On June 7, 2006 she was 18, about three and a half weeks short of 19.
• The flight: The New York Post, citing previously released flight logs highlighted again in the January 2024 Giuffre v. Maxwell unsealing, reported she was a passenger on Epstein's Boeing 727 (the jet later nicknamed the "Lolita Express") on June 7, 2006. Epstein Exposed's flight index, citing the pilot logbook, records that trip as John F. Kennedy International, NY to TIST (Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas) aboard N908JE.
• Who else was listed: The Post said Epstein was on the flight with staffers bodyguard Igor Zinoviev, personal chef Lance Calloway, and longtime assistant Sarah Kellen, plus a woman identified as Stephanie Tidwell. Epstein Exposed's passenger list for the same date and route is Jeffrey Epstein, Igor Zinoviev, Sarah Kellen, Stefanie Tidwell, Lana Catterton, and Ruslana Korshonova (a spelling used in the logs). "LC" is read as Calloway in Post reporting and as Catterton in that database.
• Island vs. airport: Little St. James has no runway for a 727. Epstein's island trips in these logs are recorded as flights to TIST, the St. Thomas airport a short boat ride from the island. News outlets describe the June 7, 2006 flight as a trip to Little St. James. That is the standard reading of an Epstein/Kellen/staff flight into TIST. The log line itself is the airport, not a guest book on the island. There is no public photo of Korshunova on Little St. James, and it is not established what happened after landing.
• This was not a new 2024 discovery in every sense: Peter Pomerantsev's May 2011 Newsweek investigation already wrote that the Nina Ricci ad took her to New York parties and "trips to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's private island." The 2024 coverage tied that older reporting to the passenger list.
• What the January 2024 papers added: Virginia Giuffre's lawyer Brad Edwards emailed her in 2011 asking if she recognized Korshunova, attaching a Newsweek piece on the model's death. Giuffre said she had never met her. That email was among the documents unsealed in Giuffre v. Maxwell.

Virginia Giuffre, May 3, 2011 email to attorney Brad Edwards:

I am so sorry to hear the news of Ruslana, and my condolences are with her family and friends. I can say that I have never had any meetings with her, sorry not to be of any help there.

In plain language: Yes. At 18 she was listed on Epstein’s June 7, 2006 flight from New York to St. Thomas with Epstein and island staff. That is how these logs record travel toward Little St. James. The handwritten U.S. v. Maxwell GX 662-RR logbook released at trial ends in January 2006, so this June passenger line is not on that 118-page exhibit. Newsrooms in 2024 cited previously released logs for the June 7 list. Being on that flight is not, by itself, proof of abuse on the island.

Claim 2: Two years later she fell from her ninth-floor New York apartment

Verdict: True. She died after a fall from her ninth-floor apartment. Officials ruled the death a suicide. The gap is about two years and three weeks. Her mother did not accept suicide.

• When and where: On June 28, 2008, around 2:30 p.m., Korshunova died after a fall from her apartment on Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District. She was 20. That is two years and 21 days after the June 7, 2006 flight. Later write-ups, including Wikipedia, give the building as 130 Water Street.
• Official ruling: New York newspapers and wire reports said police treated it as an apparent suicide. The next day the city's medical examiner's office said she jumped from her Financial District apartment and ruled the death a suicide. The New York Post reported no signs of a struggle in the one-bedroom, that the balcony had construction netting, and that she had cut through mesh before the fall. Newsweek later summarized the police/ME picture as no note, no struggle, and no alcohol or drugs in blood or urine.
• What officials said versus what is known: The medical examiner's "jumped" language is their conclusion about manner of death, not an eyewitness account of the moment she left the balcony. What is established is the fall from the ninth floor. Her mother, Valentina, told the New York Times she did not believe her daughter would kill herself and thought she might have been trying to reach a neighboring balcony through construction netting and slipped. Friends and later reporting also pointed to other strains around that time, including a breakup, modeling-industry pressure, online posts about feeling lost, and months with the Moscow group Rose of the World. Those are separate from the island-flight claim.

In plain language: Yes. She died on June 28, 2008 after falling from her ninth-floor Water Street apartment. The medical examiner ruled suicide. “Two years later” is slightly rounded. Her mother disputed the ruling. The island flight and the death are both documented, however a causal link is not.