Police: Woman falls down stairwell, out window in freak accident

INWOOD, N.Y. (WABC) -- A woman was killed she slipped and fell down a stairwell, and then out a window in a freak accident.

Yesenia Nunez told Eyewitness News in Spanish her family has to somehow grieve the loss of her mother.

67-year-old Francisca Fernandez was visiting friends on the sixth floor of 221 Sherman Avenue in the Inwood section Thursday night.

She was getting ready to head home to the Dominican Republic Tuesday and wanted to say goodbye.

On her way back to her son's apartment around 8:30, she somehow slipped in the stairwell and fell out of a fifth floor window to her death.

"She was smiling, she was even was being happy, just makes no sense, I guess you just slipped and fell," said Katherine Macado, a family friend.

Family members and neighbors say this window did not have a guard rail which they believe would have likely saved her life in this freak accident.

It's now boarded up with sheet rock.

The building's super told Eyewitness News he could not comment.

We have not yet heard from the building's owner.

The Department of Health says buildings with children under 10 years old are required to have guards on the windows including in hallways.

"It's negligent of the landlord and stuff like that, remember these buildings are very old.

It's shocking it really is," Macado said.