Police investigating the death of a model in a bungee jumping accident believe she was wearing a GoPro camera that may have been hidden after her fall. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, 21, died last week when she jumped off Skeleton Bridge in Limeira, Brazil, without a rope, falling 130 feet.
Missing camera and arrested workers
Authorities are searching for the missing GoPro, which they believe was attached to a neck strap worn by Freitas during the jump. Three bungee workers — Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, and Vitor de Freitas Goncalves, 27 — have been arrested on homicide charges after allegedly forgetting to clip on her harness. Three more suspects have also been taken into custody, including a 29-year-old woman from Rio de Janeiro and two men aged 25 and 27 from Limeira and Indaiatuba. Police suspect one of them removed the camera and deleted crucial evidence.
Witness account of evidence removal
Witness Rafael Goulart told news outlet EPTV that he saw an employee removing the camera as Freitas lay dying. 'The first scene I remember when I saw the girl on the ground was seeing one of the employees removing the GoPro camera from the neck strap of the body that was already on the ground, either worried about the equipment or wanting to hide evidence,' he said. São Paulo State authorities are investigating possible 'suppression of evidence… especially related to the disappearance of the image capture equipment used by the victim during the jump.'
Social media footage and past incidents
While Freitas's camera remains missing, footage of the fatal fall has circulated on social media. One clip shows her being helped onto a ledge with two men carrying her in a Superman pose before she is thrown off the bridge head-first. In other footage from 2022, Egoroff and another man were seen throwing a body bag off the same bridge, with a caption reading 'hiding the body.' Additional videos show Egoroff performing bungee stunts with children clinging to him. A lawyer representing the three arrested workers has disputed any notion that Freitas's death was intentional.
