March 10, 2005
BY KERRY BURKE, ALISON GENDAR and CELESTE KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
 
A bone-thin man plunged to his death from an upper East Side high-rise - and authorities were investigating yesterday the nightmarish possibility he was blown off a window sill by a gust of wind while smoking.

Ian Honeycutt, 28, of Glenview, Ill., tumbled from a ninth-floor apartment on E. 72nd St. onto a third-floor landing of a neighboring building late Tuesday or early yesterday as winds hit up to 45 mph.

Honeycutt was visiting an aunt and cousin at the upscale building at 220 E. 72nd St., and his aunt asked him not to smoke inside, police sources said.

When his relatives went to sleep, sources said, he put on a scarf and gloves, opened the window and lit up.

Police sources said they are investigating whether Honeycutt somehow fell out the window - or whether he was sitting on the sill and was knocked to his death by a gust of wind.

"The guy's 90 pounds soaking wet," a police source said.

"It was an accident," said an obviously shaken resident at the apartment from which Honeycutt fell. "That's all we have to say."

Classes at Marymount Manhattan College, which occupies the building on E. 71st St. where Honeycutt landed, were canceled yesterday while authorities investigated the death.

"I was shocked, because I never saw anything like that," said Marymount maintenance worker Mario Forte, 46.

Police sources said Honeycutt didn't leave a suicide note or speak of suicide before his fatal plunge.
http://www.nydailynews.com/