Woman, 21, thrown to her death after 'staff forget to attach rope' to her during rope jump
A harrowing incident occurred in São Paulo, Brazil this morning, which saw a 21-year-old woman lose her life in horrific circumstances.
Per The Sun, Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas allegedly wasn't safely attached to a rope before taking on a rope jump of the Ponte do Esqueleto, known as Skeleton Bridge, situated in the city of Limeira.
Unlike bungee jumping, rope jumping does not use an elastic rope, but interrupts the participant's fall in a controlled way so they swing from side to side.
She was filmed being carried towards a gorge in a Superman-esque pose by a pair of staff members.
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Just seconds after they threw her into the 131-foot drop, voices could be heard yelling: "The rope, people, the rope!"
Despite the best efforts of firefighters and paramedics, Maria died at the scene.
Maria's fiancé fell ill when he arrived at the scene of her death, and had to be taken to the emergency room, People reports.
She had posted about her thrilling jump adventure only hours earlier on social media.
"Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?" read one of her eerie photo captions.
Three suspects arrested
Witnesses allege that employees forgot to attach the rope to Maria prior to her jump.
Six people were placed in handcuffs at the scene of the tragedy at the Ponte do Esqueleto trail.
Three of them were later released after it was determined they didn't check the equipment or help prepare for Maria's jump.
The three people ultimately arrested were named as Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42.
They have been charged with homicide with implied malice, which means police believe they didn't intend to kill anyone, but due to their actions, they assumed the risk of the person's death.
Police said they were 'bewildered' by the situation, and unable to explain what had gone wrong.
'No permission' to jump from Skeleton Bridge
Police spokesperson Andréa Dantas told G1 there were no official companies behind the jump.
He said: "It's a group of people who met through this sport, who ended up getting together and have been organising these events in various destinations for about a year now."
Police say they did not have authorisation to operate at the accident site.
The group was charging the equivalent of £26.50 for bridge jumps and were advertising five other dates for the coming months.
Suspects allegedly tried to flee scene
Witnesses told police that the suspects tried to flee the scene into a nearby wooded area while police briefly stepped away to help out their colleagues, and also attempted to change clothes after the incident.
Officers had to call in support to help track them down.
The suspects deny doing this. Egoroff said in his testimony: "I took [my clothes] off because they were wet. My shirt was already wet, it was very dirty, I went to the car and put on a clean one.
"That's when police arrive with guns drawn and then it hit me. We're here. Nobody ran."
Topics: News
Dan Seddon