A 21-year-old woman died Saturday in São Paulo, Brazil, after rope-jumping from a bridge when the instructors who threw her off forgot to attach her safety harness, according to multiple media outlets.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas fell more than 130 feet to her death.
“They do not remember whether they forgot to attach [the ropes], or who was supposed to do it, or who failed to check,” Brazilian police investigator Andrea Levy told journalists on Monday, according to The Guardian. “But the fact is the ropes were not attached to her.”
Footage of the accident has since gone viral on social media and shows two instructors carrying de Freitas along a plank jutting out from Ponte do Esqueleto, an abandoned bridge in the Limeira municipality, before launching her off without a rope attached to her.
Three men — Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32; Vitor de Freitas Goncalves, 27; and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42 — were arrested Sunday and charged with homicide with eventual intent, according to NBC News, citing local officials.
This particular charge in Brazil denotes a crime in which the accused did not have intent, but were involved in an act that carried a fatal risk they were responsible for. The three men were reportedly caught attempting to flee, or “in flagrante,” per local Limeira police.
Their attorney said in a statement to Brazilian media that this was the first fatality in years.
The disturbing footage shared online shows de Freitas with her arms outstretched as she is being carried by two men above their shoulders and is then thrown off the bridge, which is otherwise known as Skeleton Bridge. One witness reportedly screamed, “Guys, the rope!”
Rope jumping differs from bungee jumping in that the cord isn’t made of elastic material and isn’t meant to have jumpers approach the bottom only to bounce up, but is made of rope and meant to create a pendulum swing that offers a more momentum-centric satisfaction.
Levy told Brazilian news portal G1 in a translated statement that the staffers involved were not “regulated” and “didn’t even have authorization to be there.” Levy noted the accident likely happened “due to a failure to verify and supervise the placement of the rope” beforehand.
De Freitas had already died of her injuries when a police helicopter arrived. She was reportedly working toward a profession in physical education, and her fiancé became physically ill when he arrived at the scene and required medical attention, per local outlet O Globo.
The young woman was buried Sunday, according to ABC News.
American rope-jumper Dan Osman is commonly considered to have founded the ostensible sport. He died in 1998 after jumping from the Leaning Tower in Yosemite National Park in California when his anchor system failed and one of the primary cords snapped.
