February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
A young Irish woman who was involved in the modeling business in New York died in an apparent suicide in a Manhattan apartment early this week, police said.
Sheila Rogers, who was 25 and from Drummullin, Co. Roscommon, was pronounced dead at the scene of a Ninth Avenue apartment in midtown Manhattan on Sunday night, according to a detective familiar with the case.
Police said the cause of Rogers’s death was still under investigation pending the results of a toxicology report from the Medical Examiner’s office. But her death appeared consistent with a suicide, the detective said. Investigators believe she may ingested some form of toxic liquid.
Grainne Rogers, the deceased sister, arrived in New York on Tuesday from California to make arrangements for her sister’s remains to be flown back to Ireland. She said Rogers had been traveling around the world and had only recently moved to the United States.
"She had been suffering from depression for the last couple of years and obviously it must have got really bad, that’s all I know," Grainne Rogers said.
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Investigators said Rogers had lived in Austria before moving to the United States last year. She had just recently moved from Brooklyn to another apartment in Manhattan. Inside police found a portfolio with modeling photo shoots. Police also found an airline ticket to Austria for a Nov. 1 flight.
"It seemed like she was planning to fly back, but she didn’t go. We don’t know why," the detective said.