After downing several shots of whiskey over a two and a half hour period in a New York City Greenwich Village bar called The Basement, she stumbled home, but only got as far as her parents' doorstep where she passed out. A dog walker discovered her unconscious and she was rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center where she was found to have a a blood alcohol content of 0.39 at the time, which is five times the state's legal limit for driving. She died five days later of acute and chronic alcoholism.