Martha Corey-Ochoa
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A brilliant Columbia University freshman contacted her parents to say she “felt suicidal” hours after they dropped her off at school — and then jumped to her death from her 14th-floor dorm room, The Post has learned.
Dobbs Ferry HS valedictorian Martha Corey-Ochoa, 18, made her fatal leap at about 11 p.m. Monday, just two hours after a session on dorm policy at the West 114th Street building where she had a single room.
Sources said the pretty brunette attempted suicide last year, and was briefly institutionalized.
Corey-Ochoa planned to double-major in English and music, and was full of hope when she was dropped off Monday by her parents, George and Melinda.
“She looked a little sad when she was saying goodbye to us,” the heartbroken father told The Journal News. “But she was controlled. She had it together.”
The talented violinist and writer later contacted her parents “and reported she felt suicidal,” law-enforcement sources said.
It’s unclear how they responded.
She jumped out of her John Jay Hall dorm window and struck a ledge one floor below before falling all the way to the sidewalk on Amsterdam Avenue at West 114th Street, authorities said.
Freshman Taylor Click found the body with fellow members of the track team, and alerted a doctor across the street at St. Luke’s Hospital.
“I feel like she was my life and, without her, my life seems to be gone,’’ her dad told the Westchester paper. “I don’t know what I’m doing now. We built our lives around her — and now she’s gone.”
Corey-Ochoa’s death came after a successful high-school career that included being named a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, performances with the Westchester Youth Orchestra and membership in the Spanish National Honor Society.
In her valedictory speech in June, Corey-Ochoa had cited Shakespeare’s tragic character Othello — who commits suicide after a lifetime of guilt and a tainted reputation.
“Before we act, we must consider the consequences of our actions,” she said.
Her parents identified her body at St. Luke’s and collected her violin and other belongings from the dorm.
Additional reporting by Laurel Babcock