The 17-year-old daughter of the US ambassador to Thailand was killed on Friday after falling out of a window from a 25th story apartment in New York, police said.
Nicole John was at an overnight party with dozens of friends when she had the accident, New York City Police Commissioner, Mr Raymond Kelly, said.
"At the scene there was a camera. She may have looked out of the window to take a picture" before she fell to her death, he added.
He said an investigation was under way and the renter of the apartment has been placed under arrest for allowing under age drinking on his premises.
The dead girl's father is Eric John, a career diplomat and US Ambassador to Bangkok since 2007.