Another Tourist Takes A Dive

Tourists across the nation continue flocking to New York City to forever entwine themselves with oblivion.

According to an article in the Daily News early last month, more than 10% of New York's suicides are committed by out-of-towners— 407 of them from 1990-2004.

And it's happened again.

This time it was a 21-year-old girl from small-town Minnesota who came to New York for that big-city thrill.

Jennifer Olson had won tickets to see Z100's Jingle Ball 2007 concert at Madison Square Garden. But just a few short hours after touching down in Gotham, Jennifer was dead after jumping from her Times Square hotel balcony.

Olson lived in Eveleth, Minnesota, a town of 3,000. She checked into the Night Hotel on West 45th on Friday afternoon with her... friend... Timothy O'Neill.

Jennifer liked Tim but apparently Tim wasn't feeling it. Tim is a rollin' stone.

So the non-couple dined at Planet Hollywood and then went for drinks at the Perfect Pint bar on W. 45th St.

Olson and O'Neill were soon in a fight when O'Neill suggested skipping the concert to go to another bar. The argument continued back at the hotel.

Olson then walked out of the couple's room and climbed onto the hotel fire escape, according to a witness working at the Millennium Hotel across the street.

Then she jumped, plummeting more than 60 feet and landing on a concrete ledge.



Maybe it was the food at Planet Hollywood? Or maybe it was the scheduled lineup for the Z100 show: Alicia Keys, Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy. I'd say either one is possible.

Apparently Jennifer was a bit unstable, battling depression and taking anti-anxiety medication. She also had the hots for Tim but Tim wasn't feeling it. The two worked together at a dentist office back in Minnesota.

But, I still think it was the food. Or maybe the Avril Lavigne. Or maybe it was the fact that she was from Eveleth, a town 190 miles north of Minneapolis. Eveleth's claim to fame was that it was the setting for that Charlize Theron movie, "North Country", about sexual discrimination in a mining company. And maybe the fact that aside from the Charlize Theron flick, the only other thing Eveleth has to boast of is being the home of "the country's largest free-standing hockey stick".



More than 1 in 10 people who kill themselves in the city are tourists, drawn to landmarks like Times Square or the Empire State Building or Z100's Jingle Ball.