American ambassador to Thailand Eric John has suffered a high-profile family tragedy with the death of his 17-year-old daughter in New York.
Nicole John fell from the 25th floor of an upmarket tower in Manhattan early on Friday. Police said she was at a late-night party with friends and was believed to have been drinking.
Police believed John may have been thinking of taking a picture. Emergency workers were said to have found a digital camera near her body.
"A witness who was at the party told them she took her shoes off before climbing out a window to a ledge outside," The New York Times said.
"When officers discovered her body, they found a camera nearby, leading investigators to believe she might have stepped out to take a picture and might have believed there was a terrace outside the window."
Bottles of alcohol were reportedly found on a sill near the window, another report said.
John's body was recovered from a third-floor landing shortly after 4am.
The teenager, who went to an international school in Bangkok in recent years, was set to attend Parsons design school in New York.
Her tragic death was a lead story on the New York Daily News and other papers.
Ilan Nassimi, a 25-year-old real estate broker, who was the host of the party and tenant renting the apartment in the Herald Square Towers, was charged by police with providing alcohol to an underage person.
John was said to have gone to Terjune, a posh Manhattan nightclub - allegedly using fake ID to suggest she was above the legal drinking age - before attending the late-night party with friends. A Daily News report described the teenager as "hard partying"
Eric John is a diplomat who has had a long career at the State Department. He has been the US Ambassador in Bangkok since 2007. His wife Sophia is Korean-born.