Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas Brazilian bungee jumper falls 131 feet to her death after operators forget to attach safety cord from Skeleton Bridge in Ponte do Esqueleto in Limeira, São Paulo. Tragedy leads to 3 extreme sports operators being charged with homicide with implied malice.
A bungee jumper in Brazil plummeted to her death after reportedly forgetting to attach a safety cord before she jumped from a bridge.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, was thrown from the Ponte do Esqueleto, known as Skeleton Bridge, in the municipality of Limeira, São Paulo, while participating in a bungee jump on Saturday, June 13, according to the Brazil’s G1.
A video posted on social media showed the moment that de Freitas was carried by staff members toward the edge of the bridge and thrown over while wearing a helmet. After she fell, a witness filming pointed to the rope left behind on the ground and shouted, ‘Guys, the rope!’
🚨🇧🇷 TRAGEDY IN BRAZIL: A 21-year-old woman, Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, died after falling 40 meters from the “Skeleton Bridge” pic.twitter.com/yGZAbcNGKo
— Iron_Note (@NBA_BIG30) June 14, 2026
Victim had joked about her own death just hours before
Witnesses alleged to Brazil’s Military Police that de Freitas was thrown without a rope and falling about 40 meters (131 feet). Freitas was pronounced dead at the scene.
De Freitas, a physical education and sports management graduate, had bought a guided tour with a rope jump from the top of the disused Skeleton Bridge.
Ominously the extreme sports enthusiast had joked about her own death hours before the tragedy.
‘Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?’ De Freitas allegedly shared on her Instagram Stories before the fatal fall, O Globo reported.
Her fiancé became ill when he arrived at the scene of her death and had to be taken to an emergency room, according to the outlet. De Freitas’s social media profile was later taken down.
Unregulated sport
An investigation led to authorities arresting three men — ages 27, 32 and 42 and charged with homicide with implied malice.
‘It was a team there that wasn’t regulated; they didn’t even have authorization to be there,’ Delegate Andrea Dantas Levy reportedly told G1. ‘They ended up organizing this event, and,” he contended, “this fatality happened today, in my perception, due to a failure to verify and supervise the placement of the rope on the victim’s jump.’
The defendants’ defense attorneys said that they are very experienced on the job and that this was the first fatality in years with the company.
Accessing area not permitted by federal law
The Limeira City Council is filing a complaint against the Brazilian federal government following the incident.
‘It is necessary to determine responsibility for the lack of access control to a federal area that has presented known risks for years and still lacks the necessary protection measures,’ said the mayor of Limeira, Murilo Félix.
Brazil’s Civil Police continues to investigate.
