Faigy Mayer, Brooklyn Tech Developer, Jumps to Death From Manhattan Rooftop Bar

A 29-year-old woman from Brooklyn died on Monday night when she jumped off a 20-story building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, police say.

The NYPD isn’t releasing her name yet, but the New York Post identifies her as Faigy Mayer.

Witnesses described the apparent suicide to the Post:

A woman jumped 20 stories to her death from a swanky rooftop bar in the Flatiron District Monday night.

As onlookers sipped pricey drinks at the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar during a corporate party at 7:30 p.m., [Mayer] suddenly sprinted toward a row of bushes that lined the edge of the establishment, cops and onlookers said.

She went through the shrubbery, over a wall and plummeted to the sidewalk on West 27th Street, shocking pedestrians.

An NYPD spokesperson says she jumped off the north edge of the roof and landed face-up on the sidewalk.

The 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar describes itself online as ”New York’s largest outdoor rooftop garden and fully enclosed penthouse lounge.” Its gardens, it says, are “open to the sky.”

Says bar patron Carlos Rodriguez to the Post: “They really need to be more careful up there. There’s nothing to keep you from jumping.”

Mayer has a heavy social-media presence. She lists herself on multiple sites as an iOS developer at a startup called Appton based in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

In April, Mayer signed up for a startup meet-and-greet called Bushwick Breakfast Club. She said she wanted to “meet new people in the neighborhood” and “see if I can be of help to others.”

Mayer’s startup, Appton, appears to have been a one-woman operation. On her LinkedIn, she wrote:

Startup founder and iOS developer looking to apply my expertise in iOS app development, social media strategy, and public speaking. Adept at analyzing technology needs for diverse groups of people. Skilled at generating unique product ideas, satisfying demand in a wide variety of markets. Currently engaged in development of multiple apps and sites. Experienced in building and managing motivated and productive teams to reach client and organizational goals. Willing to relocate to Berlin/California.

Mayer said she had earned a master’s in accounting at Brooklyn College and a certificate for data science specialization at Johns Hopkins University.

As noted by the Daily Mail, Mayer had also struggled to reconcile her modern lifestyle with her Orthodox Jewish upbringing in Borough Park.

“I wanted to transition out at a very fast speed. And it was just so challenging emotionally, the whole transition,” she said in an interview for the National Geographic documentary “Inside Hasidism,” which aired in 2012.

Mayer was 24 at the time of the interview, and said had given up the Orthodox lifestyle a few months earlier.

She said her parents kicked her out when she first told them. “They said, ’That’s it, we’re cutting you off, because you’re not religious anymore,’” Mayer told the documentary crew. “But of course they took that back at a certain point, and I’m still living with them.”

On Twitter, Mayer said was ”making apps for the homeless, tourism of Hasids, and a guide for ex-Hasids of NYC.”

As of 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, her Facebook page has been changed to memorial status.

On a Hasidic online forum, an anonymous commenter claiming to be Mayer’s former neighbor says her family struggled with their daughter leaving the community. (Patch has not been able to confirm his identity or his account.)

Update: Family, friends and neighbors in Borough Park attended a service for Mayer at a local synagogue today. Video below, via the Daily Mail.