Before a 21-year-old woman plunged to her death in a botched bungee jump in Brazil, instructors tied to the same company had already been posting videos that appeared to show a troubling disregard for safety at the bridge where the tragedy occurred.
Authorities have arrested three men in connection with the death of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, who died Saturday after allegedly being pushed from Skeleton Bridge in São Paulo without the bungee cord being properly attached to her harness. Prosecutors say the fatal mistake turned a 130-foot jump into a deadly fall.
Among those arrested is 32-year-old Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, who regularly shared videos on social media featuring high-risk stunts at the abandoned bridge. In one widely circulated clip from 2023, Egoroff is seen gripping a bungee rope with one hand while a small child clings to his neck, before he runs off the edge of the structure.
Other videos reportedly show Egoroff and fellow workers swinging close to the bridge’s concrete columns and attempting flips while attached to bungee cords. The footage has intensified scrutiny of the company’s safety culture, with critics pointing to what appears to be a pattern of reckless behavior long before Saturday’s fatal incident.
The three men arrested — Egoroff, Vitor de Freitas Goncalves, 27, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42 — all worked for the bungee company Entre Cordas. They are now facing homicide charges as investigators examine how such a catastrophic lapse could have happened.
Egoroff and two other men – Vitor de Freitas Goncalves, 27, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42 – who worked for bungee company Entre Cordas, are now facing homicide charges for the horror incident.
Viral video of Freitas’ last moments showed the three men picking her up over their heads and throwing her off the bridge, with the safety rope lying unused at their feet.
Two of the instructors then tried to flee the scene when they realized their grave mistake, before they were tracked down by a military helicopter and arrested in a nearby wooded area, local media reports.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, was thrown to her death on Saturday
Maria died after rope jump operators forgot to attach her harness, causing her to plunge 130 feet
Horrific footage circulating on social media shows the moment de Freitas, 21, was thrown to her death from the Skeleton Bridge in Sao Paolo on Saturday
Egoroff and Cintra appeared dazed in new mugshots when they were taken into custody, as their attorney said the men were confused over who was supposed to attach the bungee cord to Freitas.
The bungee instructors’ attorney told Brazilian news outlet Metropoles that after he spoke with the three men, none of them could tell him who was responsible for securing Freitas’ rope.
The attorney said that all three had helped Freitas before her jump, but they were unsure who made the final safety checks before disaster struck.
‘I spoke with them, and they were all responsible for the inspection. First, they put on a kind of vest, and then the rope,’ the attorney said.
The bungee jumping company has deleted their Instagram page and made their TikTok private in the wake of the controversy.
Matthew Lawrence, a bungee safety consultant and President of Bungee Consultants International, who had no involvement with the incident, told the Daily Mail the fatal error may have stemmed from a lack of proper safety precautions in Brazil, describing it as ‘as egregious a mistake as you could ever imagine in anything like that.’
He said a number of high-profile errors in decades past in the US have led to lawsuits that ‘got rid of the cowboys’ who would make such mistakes, but that is not the case in the South American nation.
‘It would be very rare and very unusual if someone died bungee jumping at a professional bungee jumping location in the US,’ he said. ‘That’s not gonna happen.’
Amid mounting questions over how the workers failed to attach the rope, their attorney said they had been organizing bungee jumps for over six years.
Shockingly, Rodrigues de Freitas did not die immediately after plunging more than 100 feet to the ground
Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff seen in a previous bungee jump preparing to leap off the abandoned bridge with a child in his arms
In one jaw-dropping video from 2023, Egoroff was seen holding onto a bungee rope with one hand as a young child clung to his neck
He said the rope was attached to the bridge, but ‘for some reason’ they never attached it to de Freitas or checked her harness before flinging her to her death.
Officials said over 20 people were on the bridge at the time, including de Freitas’s horrified boyfriend, who witnessed her final moments.
While the suspect’s attorney said they each helped de Freitas before the jump, Sao Paolo police deputy Andrea Dantas Levy said two of the men alleged they had a ‘blackout’ and could not recall attaching the rope.
‘They said they can’t remember where and when the fault occurred, who would have to have put it, and didn’t,’ Levy told the O Globo newspaper.
‘The third, who held [her] legs, said he was only called in to help with the throw.’
According to reports, Egoroff and Cintra held Freitas’s body for the throw, and Goncalves held her feet.
Shockingly, Rodrigues de Freitas did not die immediately after plunging more than 100 feet to the ground, the nurse who tried to save her told Brazilian TV.
Rayza Dias, a nurse at the scene, said de Freitas was suffering horrific injuries but had not yet died when she raced to her aid, and said it was difficult to get to her in the rural area.
‘I scraped my whole hand because there’s a steep slope down there and only one rope for us to climb down,’ she told news show Domingo Espetacular on Sunday. ‘It was all covered in mud. I kept going down, down, we walked all the way.’
Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, seen in his mugshot, frequently took to social media to share adrenaline-fueled antics from Skeleton Bridge in Sao Paolo
Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, (left) and Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves, 27, (right) and Egoroff are facing charges of homicide with eventual intent. The charges could see the men jailed for between six and 30 years if convicted
Years before throwing a woman to her death from an abandoned bridge in a horrific botched bungee jump, instructors at a Brazilian company performed reckless stunts and launched children from the same bridge
Rodrigues de Freitas (right) was an aspiring physical education teacher. She was buried in Sao Paulo on Sunday
The bungee jump instructors seen being perp walked after the shocking throw went viral
Dias described how the victim was breathing heavily and still had a weak pulse when she tried to give her life-saving care.
She began to get emotional as she said: ‘I even talked to her. I have a habit of joking and saying, “Nobody dies on my shift.” And I told her, “Duda, nobody dies on my shift.” Even though I wasn’t on my shift there.’
Six people were taken in for questioning following the incident, with three released and Egoroff, Cintra and Goncalvez charged with homicide with eventual intent. The charges could see the men jailed for between six and 30 years if convicted.
There has been at least one other fatal accident at the Skeleton Bridge. In 2024, a female cyclist who was riding across with friends lost control and plunged over the side to her death.
Because the structure is abandoned, access, maintenance and management fall under the responsibility of the Brazilian federal government.
The drop from the 130-foot Skeleton Bridge in Limeira, Sao Paulo, in a post from Rodrigues de Freitas’s own Instagram account – which she eerily captioned: ‘Who was the crazy one who let me come jump off a bridge?’
After a previous fatal accident at the bridge in 2024, the Brazilian government ordered danger signs to be put up in the area. Rodrigues de Freitas posted one of those signs on her Instagram
Rayza Dias, a nurse who rushed to Rodrigues de Freitas’s aid, said that the young woman was shockingly still alive immediately after the fall
Following the cyclist’s death, the federal government ordered the municipality of Limeira to block access and install danger signs.
Officials in Limeira, where the tragedy unfolded on the outskirts of Sao Paolo, said that the city would be taking legal action against the Brazilian government for failing to monitor and regulate access to the old railway.
Limeira’s mayor, Murilo Felix, said: ‘In addition to the circumstances that led to the young woman’s death, it is necessary to establish who is responsible for the lack of access control to a federal area which, for years, has posed known risks and is still without the necessary safety measures.
‘We have been calling for action for months to ensure that the Federal Government assumes its responsibility. Unfortunately, its failure to act has just resulted in yet another tragedy in Limeira.’
Rodrigues de Freitas was buried in Sao Paulo on Sunday, with her mother speaking out in an overnight social media post.
Hours after her daughter’s funeral, she said: ‘That damned rope took you away from me forever.
‘My beloved daughter, you are gone, and all that remains here is pain and longing. I will love you forever.’
Entre Cordas has been contacted for comment.
