Former Miss USA dies at 30 after apparently jumping from building, tributes pour in
- The young woman, a former lawyer, worked as an entertainment correspondent for the TV show Extra after winning the beauty pageant
- ‘She deeply cared about people and everyone who worked with her was better for it,’ said her former law firm
Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst, who worked as an entertainment correspondent for the television show Extra, has died after apparently jumping from a Manhattan apartment building, New York police told The Washington Post. She was 30.
Kryst died on Sunday, the show said. “In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie,” Kryst’s family said in a statement. “Her great light was one that inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength.”
Kryst earned an MBA and a law degree from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Before Kryst entered the Miss USA pageant, she worked as a lawyer, providing pro bono legal work for inmates who were served unjust prison sentences, The Washington Post said.
She was a part of a group of five black women who won the five major global beauty pageants that year, the first time ever, the Washington Post reported.
Kryst’s victory in the contest was marked by her wearing her natural free-flowing curls.