The woman who jumped to her death from her Manhattan high-rise with her dog in hand has been identified as Linda Holston, a recent transplant to the Big Apple.
Holston, 60, moved to Manhattan in 2017 from New Mexico, where she acted in community theater. In New York, she studied acting at the William Esper Studio, completing the program in 2019, according to an online profile on Backstage.com.
The profile described her as being 5 feet tall with brown hair and blue eyes. She graduated from the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in California in 1981.
A photo of Holston on the site shows her smiling broadly and holding a small dog with a yellow ribbon around its neck.
A receptionist at Pure Paws Veterinary Care on East 42nd Street said Holston brought her dog to the practice for regular care. The pooch was a rat terrier named Jake who was 16 and a half years old, she said.
Holston jumped with her dog from the roof of the 46-story luxury rental building on Tenth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen Friday afternoon.
She left a note that talked about stress, and bottles of medication were found in her apartment, police sources told The Post.
“She was so sweet,” said a building resident and fellow dog owner who teared up after hearing Holston was the suicide victim.
Holston, who was raised in California, seemed to embrace life in New York.
She posted photos to Facebook taking in plays and a Yankee game. Her page had “check ins” at the Central Park Zoo, New York Botanical Garden and Hudson Yards. She also posted a video of deserted streets in March 2020 after the COVID-19 lockdown began. One friend advised her to stay safe “as you are in the hot spot.”
Holston has two acting roles listed on IMDB, one in a short film called “Larry Larissa Linda” and one in a TV show titled “Conversations in Apartment 3A.”
She appeared in an off-Broadway play called “The Accidental Awakening” in 2019, according to her Facebook page.
Her Linkedin page listed a series of sales jobs before coming to New York. In New York, her last job was as a part-time fundraiser for the Manhattan Theatre Club and it ended in March 2020.
Under her name on the page, instead of a job title, she wrote, “What a wonderful world.”
Additional reporting by Dean Balsamini
Anyone considering suicide should contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or can chat with someone live on its Web site.