A 26-year-old woman who fell from a trendy Times Square rooftop bar this week was unable to “cope” with the death of her father two years ago – even though her mother insisted her daughter’s death was an accident, friends said.
Police are still investigating how Elizabeth Gaglewski fell to her death from Bar 54 in the Hyatt Centric Times Square on Wednesday, but friends say she remains devastated by the death of her father amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“She’s a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart,” said a man at Gaglewski’s Queens home on Friday, who did not want to be named. “She lost her father two years ago and never knew how to cope.”
Gaglewski’s distraught mother, Hope Smith, told the Post her daughter was not battling mental illness. “I think it was an accident,” said Smith, 65. “She didn’t struggle with anything. When she left me to meet friends, she was very happy and content, and she looked beautiful.”
Smith said her daughter, who grew up in Manhattan, often hung out with friends.
“She takes good care of herself. My daughter is a purist, which means she has the fewest friends, she’s very private, she doesn’t put any substances in her body…no junk food. She trains, She dances. She’s spiritual.”
Smith collapsed on Friday while leaving the house for dialysis and on his way to the morgue.
