Images and details from the interrogation of three extreme-sport instructors have emerged in Brazil after they were filmed over the weekend throwing a young woman from a bridge in what was supposed to be a bungee-style jump, only to realize afterward that she had allegedly not been attached to the safety rope.
One of the suspects denied responsibility for her death, while another admitted that he and a colleague were supposed to attach the rope but said he could not understand what had happened. “I can’t remember,” he said.
Brazil: 24-year-old woman killed after being thrown from 40-meter bridge near São Paulo without a rope
The fatal incident took place Saturday at the so-called Skeleton Bridge, or Ponte do Esqueleto, in São Paulo state. The bridge has been abandoned for about three decades and in recent years became a popular site for unsupervised extreme-sport activity.
In the disturbing footage, the instructors are seen throwing 21-year-old physical education student Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas from a height of 35 meters. She was wearing a helmet and harness but was allegedly not connected to the rope that was supposed to stop her fall. The forgotten rope can be seen lying on the bridge near the launch point. De Freitas hit the ground with force and was killed. She was buried Sunday.
The video, which shows de Freitas being thrown in the “airplane position” she had requested, with her arms spread as two instructors lift her over their shoulders, shocked viewers around the world. After it spread online, reports emerged claiming the instructors had tried to flee the scene or tamper with evidence, though the reliability of those reports remains unclear. The three were eventually arrested, and the first details of their questioning have now been published.
According to Brazilian reports, one of the instructors, 32-year-old Luis Felipe Feliciano Agorof, told investigators that he and 42-year-old instructor Maicon Fernandes Sintra were responsible for attaching the rope. He said, however, that the division of labor between them was not fixed: sometimes he tied the rope, and in other cases his colleague did.
“It’s either him or me who does it,” Agorof said during questioning. But he repeatedly insisted he could not recall further details. “First I went to the front, and after that, it was erased from my head. I can’t remember.”
Agorof admitted it was difficult to understand how they failed to notice the mistake, especially since the video shows the rope lying on the floor in plain sight.
“I can’t understand at what moment I didn’t see the rope,” he said. “I simply can’t understand.”
A third instructor, 27-year-old Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, told investigators he bore no responsibility for de Freitas’ death and said he had only been called to help lift her before the jump. Despite that, all three are accused of manslaughter.
According to local police, the organizers of the jump could hardly be described as a formal company. In practice, they were a team operating independently and without supervision. They had been running the jumps for about a year, charging $35.40 per jump and an additional $21.60 for those who wanted GoPro footage.
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Brazil bungee instructors who allegedly threw young woman without attaching her to rope; from left: Agorof, Sintra and Gonçalves
On the day de Freitas was thrown to her death, they were reportedly supposed to carry out about 100 jumps and earn around $2,950. De Freitas herself paid the higher rate to receive GoPro documentation of her jump. Investigators are now trying to determine where the camera is, since it may have recorded her final moments and could provide important evidence for the criminal case.
A witness who was present at the time claimed that after the disaster, one of the workers approached de Freitas’ body and that the instructors were concerned about the equipment, either because they wanted to hide evidence or because of its financial value.
Police chief Andrea Dantas Levy, who is overseeing the investigation, said it is likely the camera fell from de Freitas’ hand during the fall, even though it was strapped to her. She said no one has yet provided investigators with an explanation for its whereabouts. Levy believes someone may have taken the camera, and investigators are examining that possibility.
When Gonçalves was asked during questioning where the GoPro given to de Freitas was, he replied: “We don’t know.”
Although the jump de Freitas performed has been widely referred to around the world as a bungee jump, professionals describe it more precisely as a rope jump. It is a slightly different form of extreme sport, both in the type of rope used and the movement created during the fall. Traditional bungee jumping uses elastic cords that create a vertical spring effect, while rope jumping uses climbing ropes that are far less elastic and create more of a horizontal pendulum motion.