The Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed criminal charges against four people for their alleged responsibility in the death of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, a 21-year-old woman who lost her life during a rope jumping activity in the town of Limeira, in the state of São Paulo.
The formal accusation was directed against three instructors and the event organizer, after the young woman was thrown into the void without any safety equipment from the viaduct known as Ponte do Esqueleto.
The tragic accident occurred on June 13, on a day that brought together dozens of extreme sports and adventure tourism enthusiasts. According to the complaint, the organizers did not attach the safety rope to the harness of the victim, who was participating in the activity under the supervision of a private company.
The jump, performed from a height of between 30 and 35 meters, ended in a free fall that caused death by multiple trauma. The medical team that arrived at the scene confirmed the death on the spot.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo attributed the crime of homicide with eventual intent, aggravated by a base motive and the use of resources that made the victim’s defense impossible, to the three instructors identified as Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, Maicon Fernandes Cintra, and Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves.
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The jump, performed from a height of between 30 and 35 meters, ended in a free fall that caused death by multiple trauma.
The fourth defendant, identified as the event organizer, faces similar charges under the concept of improper omission for failing to fulfill her role as a guarantor of attendee safety, as well as procedural fraud for attempting to destroy key evidence for the investigation.
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The Public Prosecutor’s Office detailed that the group operated without a formal risk management structure and disregarded basic security protocols. The activities usually brought together between 80 and 100 people, without a clear division of roles within the team.
The victim was subjected to a maneuver locally known as the “little airplane,” in which the operators lift the practitioner and launch them into the void, a practice that requires extreme caution and double checks of the equipment.
According to the investigation, those responsible for the event were aware of the mortal risks inherent in the activity and of a history of previous operational failures, but continued to carry out the jumps without modifying the protocols. In the case of the organizer, the Prosecutor’s Office maintained that she already knew of a similar previous incident, although she never suspended the activities.
The accident was recorded on video and, in the images that circulated on social media, the screams of those present can be heard as they realized the young woman was falling without a safety rope. After the incident, the organizer ordered the body camera worn by the victim to be located and all its content deleted, with the aim of obstructing the course of justice. The electronic device remains missing.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that the pretrial detention of the three instructors be maintained and that the temporary detention of the organizer be converted into pretrial detention. It also requested compensation of 200,000 reais (approximately 39,000 dollars) as damages for the victim’s family.
