What to Know
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was an aspiring physical education teacher with a bright future. She died on June 13, 2026, in a tragic bungee jumping accident in Brazil that led to the arrest of three people. Video of the fatal plunge went viral on social media and shows three men preparing and ultimately throwing the 21-year-old woman from a bridge. Somehow, no one attached a rope to de Freitas, and she fell to her death. Now three men face charges.
The jump took place at a popular spot.
JUST IN: 21-year-old dies after workers forget to attach safety rope and push her off 40-meter bridge in São Paulo’s Limeira, Brazil pic.twitter.com/ceqniPJkUs
— Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) June 13, 2026
Brazilian news outlet GI reported de Freitas planned the excursion at Ponte do Esqueleto, known as Skeleton Bridge, in Limeira, São Paulo. The area is popular for extreme sports enthusiasts. In the video, three men held de Freitas in the air and threw her over the bridge. She was wearing a safety helmet when the person filming her yelled, “Guys, the rope!”
A helicopter arrived shortly after the men threw de Freitas from the bridge, but she succumbed to her injuries. Per G1, she fell approximately 131 feet to her death. Local news outlet O Globo reported that de Freitas allegedly made a foreboding post to her Instagram stories shortly before her death.
“Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?” she wrote.
Someone took her Instagram page down following the accident.
A witness captured de Freitas’ death on video.
@_hanzo.hasashi 🚨🇧🇷 TRAGEDIA EN BRASIL: Una joven de 21 años, Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, murió tras caer de 40 metros en la "Ponte do Esqueleto" (Limeira, São Paulo). Los operadores de la empresa "Entre Cordas" la levantaron en posición "superman" y la lanzaron al vacío olvidando por completo enganchar su cuerda de seguridad al arnés. Tras el impacto fulminante, dos instructores intentaron huir por el bosque, pero la policía los capturó con helicópteros. Ya hay 6 detenidos. La empresa borró todas sus redes sociales de inmediato. El lugar es un puente abandonado no regulado pero muy popular para el 'rope jump'. #Brasil #Limeira #PonteDoEsqueleto #Noticias #SoccerSeason2026 ♬ The Exorcist – Halloween All-Stars
The video is extremely disturbing and shows the moment de Freitas’ body flung from the bridge. It went viral quickly, and many wondered how no one noticed there was no rope attached to her body.
“It’s not a ‘safety rope.’ That implies it’s there ‘just to be safe.’ The is literally THE ROPE. It’s the entire reason she tried to do this. It is the ONLY requirement of this entire thing. You had one job. One. And failed.
Many agreed and wondered how de Freitas herself didn’t realize no one attached a rope to her body.
“I MEAN!!! They literally forgot the ONE thing they shouldn’t have. Its a different case if they had tied the rope, but it wasn’t secured enough. In this case, the rope (the most IMPORTANT thing) was forgotten. How weird that not one person (even she) didn’t notice,” someone added.
Others wonder if de Freitas and these men orchestrated her death.
“The victim knew there wasn’t anything attached to her body…Let’s be real…That’s priority one…These guys throwing her off their shoulders knew also…Even the camera person filming…None of this makes sense,” one person wrote.
“There’s no way this wasn’t intentional, they straight up just threw her off a cliff,” another commented, agreeing.
Prosecutors charged three men in de Freitas’ death.
Update: 3 men arrested in connection with the death of a 21yo woman during a rope jumping accident at Ponte do Esqueleto in São Paulo state, Brazil. Witnesses say the safety rope was not attached before she fell around 40 meters from the bridge. pic.twitter.com/WVtHHxf5OZ
— Global OSINT (@GlobalOSINTHQ) June 15, 2026
Police arrested the unidentified men ages 27, 32, and 42, and each faces a charge of 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 told G1. “They ended up organizing this event, and, 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.”
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