In the modeling world, this is beyond a disturbing tally.

First there was Ruslana Korshunova, who leapt to her death off the ninth floor of her Manhattan apartment complex two years ago this week. Then in November it was Daul Kim, the Korean ingenue who hanged herself in her London apartment. Noemie Leonir was found in a half-dead drug coma just outside Paris last month, preceded in April by Ambrose Olsen, who died from hanging. And now it’s another leading male model, Tom Nicon (right), who has fallen victim to apparent suicide.

According to news reports, the 22-year-old Nicon, who modeled frequently for Burberry and had just completed a rehearsal for Versace’s spring 2011 runway show, fell four stories to his death at a Milan apartment building. “He was with us on Friday morning for a final fitting,” said Donatella Versace, according to Stylelist. “He seemed fine and calm. He had already done three or four shows with us and he was a sweet boy. We just can’t understand why he did what he did. We would never have thought he would do something like this. When we heard the news we were all so upset and we still are all so very sad.”

While I’m not so fashion-obsessed to think that Nicon’s death and those who proceded him are of equal priority to, say, the 850,000 people who die each year from malaria, there’s clearly something amiss in the modeling world when young men and women at the prime of their career fall into such despair. Maybe we should answer these questions before we put another season of ANTM into the can. —Krista Jennings

Daul Kim, 1989-2009; and Ruslana Korshunova, 1988-2008

Ambrose Olsen, 1985-2010