An aspiring hip hop artist can be unmasked for the first time as the ‘troubled’ woman who jumped to her death while staying at actor David Harbour’s apartment.
Christin Croft, 29, was alone at the New York City home of Lily Allen’s now-estranged husband while he was away working in Canada in September 2015.
Initial reports of her death were scant, though the NYPD confirmed that it was not considered suspicious. They later ruled the manner of death as ‘undetermined’, even though she had left a note at his East Village apartment.
Croft plunged to her death from the third-floor fire escape. She had reportedly been struggling to find a place to live before meeting Harbour, then a rising Broadway actor.
Now her mysterious death has been thrown back into the spotlight following the recent release of 40-year-old Allen’s new album, West End Girl.
Allen’s track ‘P***y Palace’ refers to her man having an apartment in New York’s West Village, where Harbour, 50, is known to have a place. That home is not the one that Croft jumped from.
‘Don’t come home, I don’t want you in my bed,’ Allen sings. ‘Go to the apartment in the West Village instead.’
Other tracks tell the story of a broken marriage and a series of betrayals. She explained in an interview: ‘There are definitely some things that happened in my real life that are reflected on this record.’
The album – Allen’s first in seven years – shot to the top of the UK iTunes chart within 24 hours of release and has already been streamed more than eight million times.
Its 14 songs are widely believed to chronicle her doomed five-year marriage to Harbour, painting him as a ‘sex addict’ and unfaithful husband. She told Interview magazine: ‘Some of it is based on truth and some of it is fantasy.’
The renewed attention on Harbour’s personal life has allegedly dredged up painful memories for those who knew Croft.
One source told the Daily Mail that Allen’s viral album was hitting Croft’s daughter hard, and the family was ‘considering reaching out to him’, following the release.
Marlon Martindale, 47, who is married to Croft’s cousin Duana, told the Daily Mail that the family had initially been informed by police that Croft’s death was a suicide, despite her appearing to be in ‘good spirits’ in the days prior.
‘I don’t recall being told about a suicide note, but the last person to speak to her said she was in good spirits,’ Martindale said.
It is not clear exactly how Croft met Harbour, but a source close to her family said that she was constantly ‘networking’, trying to meet up-and-coming actors and stars before her death.
Social media posts from Croft paint a portrait of a woman battling inner demons, despite trying to break into the industry she loved.
One post just six months before her death read: ‘I’m just a wrecked ship tryna make it ashore. Some things are too damaged to be repaired. Rough sailing on this deck. About to walk the plank.’
Relatives confirm Croft had long struggled with her mental health and had been taking medication.
Martindale told the Daily Mail: ‘Yes, Christin fell to her death from David Harbour’s apartment in 2015. She struggled with mental illness. She was trying to get her life together.’
He said her daughter was being looked after by relatives at the time.
‘She was working hard and trying to get her daughter back at the time. They were working on getting back that mother-daughter bond when she died.
‘She spoke of her friend who had a nice apartment in Manhattan, who was an actor. She mentioned she’d be hanging out there and sometimes staying overnight when they were out late.
‘They were good friends. They’d do a lot of networking together. He helped her meet people in acting and music. She was friendly, always trying to get her foot in the door with rappers, singers, producers and directors.
‘That’s how they met, through that circle.’
Martindale said that Croft denied having a romantic relationship with the Stranger Things star.
‘She was a socialite, an event promoter – she just wanted to be seen,’ he added.
Harbour said at the time he was helping out a friend who was ‘struggling’ and having a hard time in her life.
He told the New York Daily News: ‘She was someone who struggled. She was in the shelter system. I was trying to help her out.’
But Martindale insisted to the Daily Mail this wasn’t the case, saying: ‘Christin had plenty of places to stay, she wasn’t in the shelter system like he said, she had plenty of family to stay with – or sometimes she would be recording and stay there.’
The actor, now 50, had been in Toronto for the premiere of Black Mass when he received word that Croft had died. Police sources later said she had a history of mental health issues.
‘I’m very confused,’ Harbour said at the time. ‘I don’t understand how this happened. She seemed to be a lovely person. It’s a terrible tragedy. I’m very shaken by this.’
The actor had gone to ground following the release of Allen’s album, until he was spotted at Universal Orlando’s new Epic Universe Park, smiling and chatting to fans as he treated Allen’s daughters, Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 12, to a day out over the weekend.
His appearance shocked fans, after the release of their mother’s album.
The actor, who kept a bucket hat pulled low over his face, was seen lining up for rides, laughing with fans and at one point carrying a theme park snack tray as he walked through the crowds.
Witnesses said he looked ‘relaxed and cheerful’, despite the torrent of online abuse directed at him in the wake of Allen’s album release.
The pair were married by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas in 2020 after meeting the previous year. Allen’s daughters Ethel, now 13, and Marnie, 12, from her first marriage to builder Sam Cooper, were by her side.
But by late 2023, their marriage had crumbled and Allen reportedly filed for divorce in September this year.
On her Miss Me? podcast, recorded before the split, Allen admitted Harbour ‘never wanted kids’ before meeting her, although she has since credited him for being a caring stepfather.
When asked by British Vogue earlier this month if Harbour would continue to be a stepparent to her two daughters in the wake of their acrimonious separation, she said: ‘You’ll have to ask him.’
On Allen’s podcast Miss Me? – before the split – he admitted he ‘never wanted kids’ before meeting her.
Harbour rose to prominence in 2016 playing the burly detective Jim Hopper in the sci-fi horror series Stranger Things – a reliable, paternal figure to Millie Bobby Brown’s character Eleven.
Harbour’s rep did not immediately return the Daily Mail’s calls for comment.
