College student, 18, falls eight stories from dorm room window ledge, dies

A young woman who attended a city college plunged eight stories to her death in Center City Thursday night when she somehow fell from a dorm-room window, police said.

The 18-year-old woman, a Temple University freshman, was visiting friends at an Art Institute of Philadelphia dormitory and somehow fell out an 8th floor window at 16th and Chestnut streets just before 6 p.m., Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

Small said police initially received 9-1-1 calls reporting that two people had fallen from a window, but that when police arrived on 16th Street just south of Chestnut, where the victim and a 44-year-old pedestrian she landed on were both laying on the sidewalk, they realized the younger of the women had fallen onto the older woman, who was walking below at the time.

The college student had severe head trauma and was bleeding profusely when officers arrived, Small said. She was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries. She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m.

Small said the 44-year-old pedestrian suffered broken vertebrae in her neck and had several of her teeth knocked out, but is expected to recover. She was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital, where she was in stable condition.

Small said Central Detectives are investigating the fall and were still trying to determine Thursday night whether the young woman fell or jumped from the window. He said there were no signs of foul play, but that detectives planned to obtain a warrant and search the dorm room she fell from as a precaution. Two men who were in the room at the time were being interviewed, as were several witnesses on the street at the time.

Preliminary information indicated that the woman may have been taking pictures with a cellphone from the window when she slipped and fell, but Small said that had not been confirmed late Thursday.