Three bungee jump workers accused of causing the death of a 21-year-old Brazilian woman after she was sent off a bridge without proper safety measures have been shown on camera for the first time since their arrests.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, died on Saturday after falling from Skeleton Bridge in Limeira, in the state of São Paulo. Disturbing video of the incident appears to capture the moment the aspiring physical education teacher was fatally dropped during the jump.
Newly released footage of the men’s police questioning shows the three suspects discussing their alleged roles in Freitas’ death and expressing dismay over what happened.
Their behavior during the interrogations differed noticeably. One appeared subdued, another gave little away, and a third — still wearing braces — denied any responsibility in the fatal fall.
During questioning, instructor Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, who was positioned at the front while handling Freitas, told investigators that he and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, were responsible for attaching the rope.
“It’s either him or me who does that,” Egoroff said in the interrogation, according to EPTV.
But then, Egoroff repeatedly insisted that he could not recall any other details of what transpired leading up to Freitas’ fatal fall.
‘I went to the front first,’ he said. ‘After that, it erased it from my mind. I can’t remember.’
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, was tossed off the Skeleton Bridge in São Paulo on Saturday to her death by three workers who have since been arrested, charged and deposed
One of the instructors, 32-year-old Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, insisted that he did not remember what happened before Freitas’ death
Cintra told authorities that he had been the instructor at Freitas’ feet at the time of the incident.
He explained that the the group’s roles varied when it came to their rope jump operation.
‘In the procedure, sometimes I’m the one who places the rope [on the person], sometimes it’s Felipe,’ Cintra told authorities.
Cintra appeared to be looking towards the ground for most of his interrogation.
The instructor said the jumping equipment was ‘visible’ and that it was difficult to comprehend how the mistake leading to Freitas’ tragic death had not been spotted.
‘It’s us three on the job,’ he said. ‘I can’t understand at what moment I didn’t see the rope.’
Moments later, he added: ‘I simply cannot understand.’
Another instructor, 42-year-old Maicon Fernandes Cintra, told authorities that he ‘simply cannot understand’ how the equipment error that led to Freitas’ death had not been sighted
Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, was also interrogated by Brazilian authorities as part of the investigation into Freitas’ death
Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, claimed he had only been called over to help with lifting the woman.
When he was asked where the GoPro camera that Freitas was holding in her hand was, Gonçalves said: ‘Right, yeah. We don’t know.’
Freitas was apparently given a GoPro camera to document her descent just moments before her death.
The Brazilian woman was sporting a helmet and appeared to be wearing a harness, but she was completely unattached to the structure and a bungee rope when the workers tossed her over the edge.
Authorities believe that the missing camera could have the footage leading up to Freitas’ fatal fall over the weekend.
Local pedagogist Rafael Goulart, who was waiting in line when Freitas was tossed to her death, claimed one of the workers had approached her motionless body after the fall.
‘They were worried about the equipment, either to hide evidence or because of its financial value,’ Goulart told TV Globo.
Investigators are looking for a GoPro camera that Freitas had on her at the time of the fall which could show footage of the fatal incident
Andrea Dantas Levy, the police chief in charge of the case, said Monday that the GoPro carried by Freitas may have been taken.
She explained that no one had offered an explanation for where it was while being interrogated.
‘Honestly, I don’t think it’s still there, given the number of people who came to the bridge later to look for it,’ Levy said.
‘I believe that, unfortunately, someone may have taken the camera,’ she added.
Levy said the camera belonged to the organizers of the dangerous jump, which she said ‘cannot be called a company.’
‘It’s likely that during the fall, it slipped out of the victim’s hand, even though it was strapped to her wrist,’ Levy added.
This is a breaking news story. More to come.
