June 15, 2026
A Young Woman Bungee Jumps To Her Death, Three People Charged With Murder
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RSS Feed A tragic story out of Brazil this weekend. Video of a 21-year-old woman attending a bungee jumping event is circulating online. It shows the final moments of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues De Freitas with a helmet and harness being lifted up by three men and then thrown off the bridge. The problem, the rope wasn’t secured and De Freitas fell to her death. The three men who threw her are now facing homicide charges. We talk about just how dangerous bungee jumping is, before you plan your next adventure.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, June fifteenth, and a tragic bungee jumping accident. A woman has died after bungee jumping. It's all caught on video, caught on multiple angles and now people have been arrested and charged with murder in this case. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. Where do we start with this one? But this is an awful, awful tragedy and Robes, we see these every once in a while, but they are rare.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yes, they are rare, and that should be noted. But look, this is something that a lot of folks have on their bucket lists, and this is something that folks like to do when they're on vacation maybe or even plan an outing. And this young woman, and she was young, twenty one years old, her name Maria Eduardo Rodriguez de Freitas, and she actually signed up as a part of a group to go on this bunch jumping adventure and was excited about it. And it's something that a lot of people think about and plan to do. They're a little nervous, but you know, you trust the equipment, you trust the people who are guiding you.
00:01:14
Speaker 3: You trust the ropes.
00:01:15
Speaker 2: There's no other way to do something like this other than to do that or go in with that mindset, and with that mindset.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: Robes. You talk about trusting the equipment, this is a case of trusting the people. Yes, the equipment in this case, folks didn't even have the opportunity to fail.
00:01:35
Speaker 3: Yes, because the rope was not secured.
00:01:38
Speaker 2: Man, And I'm sure if any of you have been online, you may have seen I only watched the videos that stopped before you actually see anything you don't want to see that you can't unsee. But the other really horrific part about this, And look, I've done this when I ziplined, but to imagine doing this budge jumping, this takes a lot of She actually was hoisted up by three men and she went head first. They call it the superman position. And so you see these three men lifting her up. She's got harnesses on her, she's got a helmet on her, she's got all the safety equipment. The three men have harnesses on them. Everything looks like it's all connected and secured and safe.
00:02:24
Speaker 1: But the rope itself is not attached. The rope itself is not attached, and there's some awful shot robes of her after you see her being thrown by these three men, and the camera pans and you see the rope sitting there on the ground, not moving, not going down, not going down with her. It's just sitting there and it's not attached. This is the video is horrific. Now, I did not know this roads, but there are all kinds of styles and they have names for them, and you can choose how you want to bungee Yes, I had not seen this and did not know this was an option that people took.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look I have always said this. Look, I think you know and most people who at least have listened to us on any given episodes. I'm a daredevil. I like to do daring, thrilling, scary things. I like to challenge myself. I like to challenge my mental capacity to face fear. I've kind of always been like that, but it ramped up after cancer. And so, yeah, I've done the Superman position on a zip line and I'll tell you it's thrilling, it's scary. It feels like you're flying, So I can see if you're gonna go ahead and bungee jump, that would be the scariest, most thrilling way to do it, and to see her kind of take that challenge and go for it. It's just appalling and just it makes your stomach just twist to think that she was never connected to that rope as they throw her off this cliff.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: She fell one hundred and thirty feet.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: She never had a chance. Just what we're talking about here is literally throwing somebody off of a thirteen story building. She was literally thrown. Now I only say it as a matter robes. It doesn't matter what position she would have been in.
00:04:11
Speaker 3: That's true, it's.
00:04:12
Speaker 1: Not survivable, But there's something about the image of three people literally threw her to her death with nothing to stop her. We are literally, folks, that's what we're talking about. She was not attached to anything. Imagine just somebody throwing somebody off a building is what happened.
00:04:28
Speaker 3: That is what happened.
00:04:30
Speaker 1: The ground I did not know. Again, some people do it. You can have harnesses attached to your body. Some people do it on their arms. I see the one with the feet a lot.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, because yeah, they jump and then they end up going upside down.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: Basically, with all the ways you can do.
00:04:43
Speaker 1: It, you can stand up on a rail, you can jump forward, some people do a back dive, all these things, but one of the options is you can have people throw you. And this is a thing that's done. I thought it was unique maybe to that area or something, but just to point out, I didn't it was uncommon to me. I'm like, why the hell are they throwing her? It is something that people do.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: It's exciting, it's thrilling. You're looking and you're going head first, so you're and imagine she doesn't know she's not attached, Like at any point, she wouldn't have known until maybe she gets so close she thinks, wow, this is getting close, and that would be the last thought. I mean, she wouldn't. I can't imagine there was a moment where she panicked where she thought she wasn't connected.
00:05:24
Speaker 1: No, she was still having fun. It was still exhilarating down to that moment. It's horrific.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: Wow. And after the fall you pointed out the camera pans. You could actually hear a woman on one of the videos say, guys, the rope and she noticed that the rope wasn't moving and it was too late. At that point, there was no way you could possibly change the outcome. And so yes, the police recalled. And in the police report they say, at the time of the jump, the safety equipment was not properly fixed, the victim did not resist the fall, and death was confirmed. And so they just there saying like she wasn't thrown against her will, but yet she was thrown without the equipment that needed to be attached. And look this young woman, she was a physical education in sports management graduate. I mean, she was just beginning her life. She had just graduated from her higher education, and she bought this tour. It was a guided tour that she purchased to jump off this thing called the Skeleton Bridge. It's an unused bridge there near South Paolo, Brazil.
00:06:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at it, I mean it looks sketchy, that's the worst way to put it. It didn't look like something organized, Like a few folks just met at some random spot in the mid some old dirt road and start jumping off a bridge. So I'm sure they do this here and it's been done, fine and whatever, But man, but ro this is negligence. It is not her job to make sure you secure her. No, don't get me wrong, I would ask a million questions.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: So I know you would. I mean, would you bungee jump by the way, before this, just in general.
00:06:59
Speaker 2: So I was going to say, this is the one thing that I have always said I would never do to me.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is like.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: I would potentially skydive, but I just feel like there's no room for error.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: I think that's what always scared me.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: It's a high jump and off to kill you, yes, but it's a quick enough jump that there's no room for error. You don't have a chance to fix a mistake.
00:07:22
Speaker 1: I don't have a desire for this enough that outweighs the risk, which is low. Don't get me wrong, Yes, but there's nothing about this that I desire, even the sky diving. I go back and forth, but I'm not sure. Not even with that, I'm just risk averse. I guess we're older folks and we got seeing kids in their lives, and just why take a risk that's not necessarily just necessary, just so I can get a thrill. I'm not there.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: Yes, you know what.
00:07:49
Speaker 2: I think I might be in that same camp as you, But this is and especially when you see stories like this, they are cautionary tales. And her fiance there are of courts. He became ill the scene, he had to be taken away to an emergency room.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: Can you imagine.
00:08:03
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just all of this because there were many, many, many witnesses to this, because yes, this was a group guided activity. So six people were initially brought in for questioning. When the police arrived, three of them, we don't have their names, but they're twenty seven, thirty two and forty two were all arrested. And the way they described it. With Brazilian law, they were arrested. It's called in flagrante or caught in the act. So the charge is homicide with the eventual intent is what it's called. So the charge applies to a case where the people who are accused didn't intend to kill the person, but they engaged in such a dangerous act that it carried a fatal risk and they.
00:08:46
Speaker 3: Didn't do what needed to be done to prevent the death.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: That's our voluntary manslaughter.
00:08:51
Speaker 3: You know what, thank you, as I just said that all out loud.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: It is basically voluntary. Man, it's men voluntary here in the US here the US right now. You give a point, but yeah, you your action is almost like junk driving right, your negligence caused somebody's death. Rose, This is and that they can't feel good about that. I mean how they feel to know you literally it's not just you made a mistake and then she jumped it. Well, they physically picked her up and you just threw her off.
00:09:22
Speaker 3: You know, it's You're right, You make such a good point.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: If she had just jumped on her own, it's obviously still would have been horrific, tragic, and if somebody would have had to be culpable. But to know that you threw her that has to be something those three men obviously they didn't want anyone to die. Obviously this is a worst case scenario and a living nightmare. But I don't know how you how you even just get your head around what you participated in.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: We in court even Rose, because I'm going to that part of I intentionally threw her but accidentally killed her. How do you work that out? Man?
00:09:59
Speaker 2: Ro That's and so fingerpointing has already begun, as you might imagine. So there are local leaders there in Brazil. There's a couple quotes that they gave to the paper saying this was a team, the team that the group, the guided group that was not regulated. They didn't even have authorization to be there. They ended up organizing this event, and then this fatality happened today due to a failure to verify and supervise the placement of the rope on the victims jump. And so the legal team for these they've already got legal teams obviously.
00:10:25
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, so who's it sounds like somebody in that statement is pointing the finger at the government for not regulating.
00:10:30
Speaker 2: So yes, and so they're now actually the local municipality is pointing the finger at the federal government for not doing better at keeping this bridge either off limits that the fact that it's being used. They're trying to now just start, you know, blaming other people for even allowing access to these This is like an unused, decrepit bridge.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Everybody just blame. Why is everybody not just blaming the company, the guys.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: They're now just blaming everybody. Yes, and then the company has legal representation and they're already saying because there was an accusation that they weren't regulated, They're like, no, this is an experienced team on the job. And this was a little arming. This was the first fatality in years with the company in years. That's not what I would ever want to hear about a company that was taking me to bungee jump.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: Okay, but did they even acknowledge a tragedy or something or it is completely lowyered up.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: It's lawyered up right now.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: And you can only imagine because this just happened over the weekend and we're talking Monday, and already people are trying to obviously get out of any sort of legal trouble, financial trouble. But this is going to be a hell of a story that continues and when we come back, you know, hearing first fatality in years, we actually even asked each other how dangerous is it to bungee jump?
00:11:44
Speaker 3: Well, we took a look. We'll tell you what we found out when we come back.
00:11:57
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ were I'm talking about this fatal bungee jumping accident where now you have one twenty one year old girl dead and three men charged with her murder. They threw her off this bridge and the rope wasn't attached to her.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: You know, when we say throw her off a bridge, it almost sounds like they were doing something malicious. No, they were doing what was requested. They did. This is a technique, Rose, I'd never heard of this being an option for bungee jump.
00:12:29
Speaker 3: The Superman style.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: Now that's yes. I've seen that people jump forward, that's Superman. This you can launch yourself. I've never seen so much just throw people.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I understand it that, you know what it is.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: Usually I've had to repel and I got too scared when I got to the top, and I said, someone's gonna have to throw me.
00:12:45
Speaker 3: Someone's gonna have to push me.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: So maybe that's the idea.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: And I think that's what it is.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: You hesitate and you stand and you look over this bridge and you think I can't do this to myself. And I have actually said I need someone to push me because there's no way I will. I can't make my body jump because my body's telling me not to. So that's probably what it is. And yes, the fatality rate, we just looked it up. Look estimates and they're estimating it because it's tough to know with all of the different outfitters around the world, but they say roughly one death per five hundred thousand jumps.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. It's so it's rare, that's the point.
00:13:19
Speaker 2: And they say that that is almost exactly the same rough estimate they give for skydivers as well. So, but unlike skydiving, a bungee jump relies entirely on a single primary system, which is the rope the cord. If there's a malfunction, or if the cord fails or in this case, if they don't attach the rope, there is no backup. There's no secondary safety mechanisms. And that's why it's so scary. That is why you don't want to fly in a single engine plane. That is why a lot of it. If there isn't a backup security to whatever it is you're doing, if anything goes wrong, you have no chance. And that's exactly what happened they I mean.
00:14:00
Speaker 1: They just do this so much. It becomes so routine. You're just going through the motions and you forget that's what.
00:14:07
Speaker 2: Happens, or you get distracted and I don't know, was there one person who was supposed to secure the rope or was it Hey, one of us has to do it eventually. That's why you have to have specific responsibilities. And so who was the person who was responsible or does it just shift from person to person, and they don't. They thought the other person did it. They thought the other person did it. I mean, that's probably what ended up happening. It can and when you look at it's not just death. When you look at bungee jumping concerns and safety issues, the injuries I was reading about also just confirmed the fact that I will never bungee jump.
00:14:41
Speaker 1: Wait, let me let me think I haven't seen these. I assume some head injuries.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: Uh no, it doesn't necessarily say head. But how about this eye injuries because the sudden force of the bungee cord can release, can create pressure that affects your eyes, and you can actually end up with lifelong eye problem.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: Impact. That's not impact.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: It's it's the it's the pressure of the court when you're when you're when you get pulled back up the neck and spine strain. So yes, and that like a whiplash effect. This is not that's what always makes me nervous.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: Oh no, I thought we were talking about impact. I'm thinking like maybe the core went too far and somebody hit the head.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: No, this is if everything goes right, you can still it's just and an ankle strain or injury because the cord is often secured as you pointed out, around the ankles, and this area can experience strain.
00:15:31
Speaker 3: If the setup isn't precise, it could pull.
00:15:34
Speaker 2: Okay, so no, thank you.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: You just describe what can happen if with a successful bungee Yes.
00:15:41
Speaker 2: Yes, And I'm sure when you sign that waiver, you sign away all your rights to any injuries, any claims, any medical issues you may have because of this bungee jump that you're choosing to take.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: There's no way she signed this away that that was negligent risk involved, but not risk of death.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: I'm sure she signed a risk of death clause. However, I'm sure her lawyers are going to say, yeah, but she had the understanding that she'd be attached to a rope there it is, so you cannot get around that. But to think that these three men may spend like, yeah, the next what, I don't even know what the punishment is, but they could be looking at decades behind bars.
00:16:22
Speaker 1: There have been several cases robes around the world in recent years. The last one I was telling you about Kazakhstan actually in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, same kind of a thing robes with this woman and she was in front of her husband of fiance at the time.
00:16:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, you usually do it with family members watching.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: But she got scared, didn't want to do it, but the instructor had already harnessed her up and was almost annoyed that he'd have to take it off over and forced and pushed and insisted that she do it. She jumped, wasn't attached properly, died right there on the spot. It's like she knew four years in prison is what he got. There was another case in twenty fifteen in Spain, young lady died and this is what I've seen in the death robe. Is not equipment failure, human error, Yes, it's human air. And in twenty fifteen, there was a group of folks who were supposed to who were doing this bungee thing, and there was like a process and the guy would come to one person, get them squared away and tied end and they jump. He was just kind of going down the line. He got to one woman, did one step, she thought she was good to go and jumped without proper communication of saying you can go. She thought she was good. That person also was arrested that's so scary. So I have seen these cases ropes. It's not the equipment failing. And then we see this so often in many things, it's human error in some way.
00:17:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, And I mean I have told you there were plenty of times where and you have too. You've been dangling off a cliff, We've been dangling off of oh god, that building in New York. I've dangled off of the Midian Shamani and thought to myself, I really hope they secured this rope. I mean, it's it's frightening, and it is human error that usually causes it. One last thing before we leave. This was her Instagram has been disabled, but before she died the last post. People Magazine reported this that Maria Eduardo Rodriguez de Freitas put on her Instagram story who was the crazy person who lets me jump off a bridge? And she kind of was joking and took a picture of the of the setup. And and it's just to note that that was her last post. Is just extra eerie just knowing and given what happened.
00:18:31
Speaker 1: Unless you know where her head was, which is exactly where it should have been. Is this is a challenge as an adventure. This is going to be fun. I'm going to be proud of myself that I eventually did it, and I'm in good hands. Her head was exactly where it was supposed to be. This one's man that we talked about too soon, and we see tragedies and we see just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. This one did not have to happen. This wow, This one's stings man. It was her fiance or her fiance.
00:18:57
Speaker 2: She had her fiance there and he had to be taken away to an emergency room as you can only imagine. But our hearts go out, oh to her poor family and friends. This is just a horrific, horrific accident. But we always appreciate you listening to us.
00:19:11
Speaker 3: Everyone.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Robach alongside DJ Holmes. We will talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, June fifteenth, and a tragic bungee jumping accident. A woman has died after bungee jumping. It's all caught on video, caught on multiple angles and now people have been arrested and charged with murder in this case. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. Where do we start with this one? But this is an awful, awful tragedy and Robes, we see these every once in a while, but they are rare.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yes, they are rare, and that should be noted. But look, this is something that a lot of folks have on their bucket lists, and this is something that folks like to do when they're on vacation maybe or even plan an outing. And this young woman, and she was young, twenty one years old, her name Maria Eduardo Rodriguez de Freitas, and she actually signed up as a part of a group to go on this bunch jumping adventure and was excited about it. And it's something that a lot of people think about and plan to do. They're a little nervous, but you know, you trust the equipment, you trust the people who are guiding you.
00:01:14
Speaker 3: You trust the ropes.
00:01:15
Speaker 2: There's no other way to do something like this other than to do that or go in with that mindset, and with that mindset.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: Robes. You talk about trusting the equipment, this is a case of trusting the people. Yes, the equipment in this case, folks didn't even have the opportunity to fail.
00:01:35
Speaker 3: Yes, because the rope was not secured.
00:01:38
Speaker 2: Man, And I'm sure if any of you have been online, you may have seen I only watched the videos that stopped before you actually see anything you don't want to see that you can't unsee. But the other really horrific part about this, And look, I've done this when I ziplined, but to imagine doing this budge jumping, this takes a lot of She actually was hoisted up by three men and she went head first. They call it the superman position. And so you see these three men lifting her up. She's got harnesses on her, she's got a helmet on her, she's got all the safety equipment. The three men have harnesses on them. Everything looks like it's all connected and secured and safe.
00:02:24
Speaker 1: But the rope itself is not attached. The rope itself is not attached, and there's some awful shot robes of her after you see her being thrown by these three men, and the camera pans and you see the rope sitting there on the ground, not moving, not going down, not going down with her. It's just sitting there and it's not attached. This is the video is horrific. Now, I did not know this roads, but there are all kinds of styles and they have names for them, and you can choose how you want to bungee Yes, I had not seen this and did not know this was an option that people took.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look I have always said this. Look, I think you know and most people who at least have listened to us on any given episodes. I'm a daredevil. I like to do daring, thrilling, scary things. I like to challenge myself. I like to challenge my mental capacity to face fear. I've kind of always been like that, but it ramped up after cancer. And so, yeah, I've done the Superman position on a zip line and I'll tell you it's thrilling, it's scary. It feels like you're flying, So I can see if you're gonna go ahead and bungee jump, that would be the scariest, most thrilling way to do it, and to see her kind of take that challenge and go for it. It's just appalling and just it makes your stomach just twist to think that she was never connected to that rope as they throw her off this cliff.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: She fell one hundred and thirty feet.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: She never had a chance. Just what we're talking about here is literally throwing somebody off of a thirteen story building. She was literally thrown. Now I only say it as a matter robes. It doesn't matter what position she would have been in.
00:04:11
Speaker 3: That's true, it's.
00:04:12
Speaker 1: Not survivable, But there's something about the image of three people literally threw her to her death with nothing to stop her. We are literally, folks, that's what we're talking about. She was not attached to anything. Imagine just somebody throwing somebody off a building is what happened.
00:04:28
Speaker 3: That is what happened.
00:04:30
Speaker 1: The ground I did not know. Again, some people do it. You can have harnesses attached to your body. Some people do it on their arms. I see the one with the feet a lot.
00:04:38
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, because yeah, they jump and then they end up going upside down.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: Basically, with all the ways you can do.
00:04:43
Speaker 1: It, you can stand up on a rail, you can jump forward, some people do a back dive, all these things, but one of the options is you can have people throw you. And this is a thing that's done. I thought it was unique maybe to that area or something, but just to point out, I didn't it was uncommon to me. I'm like, why the hell are they throwing her? It is something that people do.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: It's exciting, it's thrilling. You're looking and you're going head first, so you're and imagine she doesn't know she's not attached, Like at any point, she wouldn't have known until maybe she gets so close she thinks, wow, this is getting close, and that would be the last thought. I mean, she wouldn't. I can't imagine there was a moment where she panicked where she thought she wasn't connected.
00:05:24
Speaker 1: No, she was still having fun. It was still exhilarating down to that moment. It's horrific.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: Wow. And after the fall you pointed out the camera pans. You could actually hear a woman on one of the videos say, guys, the rope and she noticed that the rope wasn't moving and it was too late. At that point, there was no way you could possibly change the outcome. And so yes, the police recalled. And in the police report they say, at the time of the jump, the safety equipment was not properly fixed, the victim did not resist the fall, and death was confirmed. And so they just there saying like she wasn't thrown against her will, but yet she was thrown without the equipment that needed to be attached. And look this young woman, she was a physical education in sports management graduate. I mean, she was just beginning her life. She had just graduated from her higher education, and she bought this tour. It was a guided tour that she purchased to jump off this thing called the Skeleton Bridge. It's an unused bridge there near South Paolo, Brazil.
00:06:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at it, I mean it looks sketchy, that's the worst way to put it. It didn't look like something organized, Like a few folks just met at some random spot in the mid some old dirt road and start jumping off a bridge. So I'm sure they do this here and it's been done, fine and whatever, But man, but ro this is negligence. It is not her job to make sure you secure her. No, don't get me wrong, I would ask a million questions.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: So I know you would. I mean, would you bungee jump by the way, before this, just in general.
00:06:59
Speaker 2: So I was going to say, this is the one thing that I have always said I would never do to me.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is like.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: I would potentially skydive, but I just feel like there's no room for error.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: I think that's what always scared me.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: It's a high jump and off to kill you, yes, but it's a quick enough jump that there's no room for error. You don't have a chance to fix a mistake.
00:07:22
Speaker 1: I don't have a desire for this enough that outweighs the risk, which is low. Don't get me wrong, Yes, but there's nothing about this that I desire, even the sky diving. I go back and forth, but I'm not sure. Not even with that, I'm just risk averse. I guess we're older folks and we got seeing kids in their lives, and just why take a risk that's not necessarily just necessary, just so I can get a thrill. I'm not there.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: Yes, you know what.
00:07:49
Speaker 2: I think I might be in that same camp as you, But this is and especially when you see stories like this, they are cautionary tales. And her fiance there are of courts. He became ill the scene, he had to be taken away to an emergency room.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: Can you imagine.
00:08:03
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just all of this because there were many, many, many witnesses to this, because yes, this was a group guided activity. So six people were initially brought in for questioning. When the police arrived, three of them, we don't have their names, but they're twenty seven, thirty two and forty two were all arrested. And the way they described it. With Brazilian law, they were arrested. It's called in flagrante or caught in the act. So the charge is homicide with the eventual intent is what it's called. So the charge applies to a case where the people who are accused didn't intend to kill the person, but they engaged in such a dangerous act that it carried a fatal risk and they.
00:08:46
Speaker 3: Didn't do what needed to be done to prevent the death.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: That's our voluntary manslaughter.
00:08:51
Speaker 3: You know what, thank you, as I just said that all out loud.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: It is basically voluntary. Man, it's men voluntary here in the US here the US right now. You give a point, but yeah, you your action is almost like junk driving right, your negligence caused somebody's death. Rose, This is and that they can't feel good about that. I mean how they feel to know you literally it's not just you made a mistake and then she jumped it. Well, they physically picked her up and you just threw her off.
00:09:22
Speaker 3: You know, it's You're right, You make such a good point.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: If she had just jumped on her own, it's obviously still would have been horrific, tragic, and if somebody would have had to be culpable. But to know that you threw her that has to be something those three men obviously they didn't want anyone to die. Obviously this is a worst case scenario and a living nightmare. But I don't know how you how you even just get your head around what you participated in.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: We in court even Rose, because I'm going to that part of I intentionally threw her but accidentally killed her. How do you work that out? Man?
00:09:59
Speaker 2: Ro That's and so fingerpointing has already begun, as you might imagine. So there are local leaders there in Brazil. There's a couple quotes that they gave to the paper saying this was a team, the team that the group, the guided group that was not regulated. They didn't even have authorization to be there. They ended up organizing this event, and then this fatality happened today due to a failure to verify and supervise the placement of the rope on the victims jump. And so the legal team for these they've already got legal teams obviously.
00:10:25
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, so who's it sounds like somebody in that statement is pointing the finger at the government for not regulating.
00:10:30
Speaker 2: So yes, and so they're now actually the local municipality is pointing the finger at the federal government for not doing better at keeping this bridge either off limits that the fact that it's being used. They're trying to now just start, you know, blaming other people for even allowing access to these This is like an unused, decrepit bridge.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Everybody just blame. Why is everybody not just blaming the company, the guys.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: They're now just blaming everybody. Yes, and then the company has legal representation and they're already saying because there was an accusation that they weren't regulated, They're like, no, this is an experienced team on the job. And this was a little arming. This was the first fatality in years with the company in years. That's not what I would ever want to hear about a company that was taking me to bungee jump.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: Okay, but did they even acknowledge a tragedy or something or it is completely lowyered up.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: It's lawyered up right now.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: And you can only imagine because this just happened over the weekend and we're talking Monday, and already people are trying to obviously get out of any sort of legal trouble, financial trouble. But this is going to be a hell of a story that continues and when we come back, you know, hearing first fatality in years, we actually even asked each other how dangerous is it to bungee jump?
00:11:44
Speaker 3: Well, we took a look. We'll tell you what we found out when we come back.
00:11:57
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ were I'm talking about this fatal bungee jumping accident where now you have one twenty one year old girl dead and three men charged with her murder. They threw her off this bridge and the rope wasn't attached to her.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: You know, when we say throw her off a bridge, it almost sounds like they were doing something malicious. No, they were doing what was requested. They did. This is a technique, Rose, I'd never heard of this being an option for bungee jump.
00:12:29
Speaker 3: The Superman style.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: Now that's yes. I've seen that people jump forward, that's Superman. This you can launch yourself. I've never seen so much just throw people.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I understand it that, you know what it is.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: Usually I've had to repel and I got too scared when I got to the top, and I said, someone's gonna have to throw me.
00:12:45
Speaker 3: Someone's gonna have to push me.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: So maybe that's the idea.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: And I think that's what it is.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: You hesitate and you stand and you look over this bridge and you think I can't do this to myself. And I have actually said I need someone to push me because there's no way I will. I can't make my body jump because my body's telling me not to. So that's probably what it is. And yes, the fatality rate, we just looked it up. Look estimates and they're estimating it because it's tough to know with all of the different outfitters around the world, but they say roughly one death per five hundred thousand jumps.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. It's so it's rare, that's the point.
00:13:19
Speaker 2: And they say that that is almost exactly the same rough estimate they give for skydivers as well. So, but unlike skydiving, a bungee jump relies entirely on a single primary system, which is the rope the cord. If there's a malfunction, or if the cord fails or in this case, if they don't attach the rope, there is no backup. There's no secondary safety mechanisms. And that's why it's so scary. That is why you don't want to fly in a single engine plane. That is why a lot of it. If there isn't a backup security to whatever it is you're doing, if anything goes wrong, you have no chance. And that's exactly what happened they I mean.
00:14:00
Speaker 1: They just do this so much. It becomes so routine. You're just going through the motions and you forget that's what.
00:14:07
Speaker 2: Happens, or you get distracted and I don't know, was there one person who was supposed to secure the rope or was it Hey, one of us has to do it eventually. That's why you have to have specific responsibilities. And so who was the person who was responsible or does it just shift from person to person, and they don't. They thought the other person did it. They thought the other person did it. I mean, that's probably what ended up happening. It can and when you look at it's not just death. When you look at bungee jumping concerns and safety issues, the injuries I was reading about also just confirmed the fact that I will never bungee jump.
00:14:41
Speaker 1: Wait, let me let me think I haven't seen these. I assume some head injuries.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: Uh no, it doesn't necessarily say head. But how about this eye injuries because the sudden force of the bungee cord can release, can create pressure that affects your eyes, and you can actually end up with lifelong eye problem.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: Impact. That's not impact.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: It's it's the it's the pressure of the court when you're when you're when you get pulled back up the neck and spine strain. So yes, and that like a whiplash effect. This is not that's what always makes me nervous.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: Oh no, I thought we were talking about impact. I'm thinking like maybe the core went too far and somebody hit the head.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: No, this is if everything goes right, you can still it's just and an ankle strain or injury because the cord is often secured as you pointed out, around the ankles, and this area can experience strain.
00:15:31
Speaker 3: If the setup isn't precise, it could pull.
00:15:34
Speaker 2: Okay, so no, thank you.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: You just describe what can happen if with a successful bungee Yes.
00:15:41
Speaker 2: Yes, And I'm sure when you sign that waiver, you sign away all your rights to any injuries, any claims, any medical issues you may have because of this bungee jump that you're choosing to take.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: There's no way she signed this away that that was negligent risk involved, but not risk of death.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: I'm sure she signed a risk of death clause. However, I'm sure her lawyers are going to say, yeah, but she had the understanding that she'd be attached to a rope there it is, so you cannot get around that. But to think that these three men may spend like, yeah, the next what, I don't even know what the punishment is, but they could be looking at decades behind bars.
00:16:22
Speaker 1: There have been several cases robes around the world in recent years. The last one I was telling you about Kazakhstan actually in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, same kind of a thing robes with this woman and she was in front of her husband of fiance at the time.
00:16:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, you usually do it with family members watching.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: But she got scared, didn't want to do it, but the instructor had already harnessed her up and was almost annoyed that he'd have to take it off over and forced and pushed and insisted that she do it. She jumped, wasn't attached properly, died right there on the spot. It's like she knew four years in prison is what he got. There was another case in twenty fifteen in Spain, young lady died and this is what I've seen in the death robe. Is not equipment failure, human error, Yes, it's human air. And in twenty fifteen, there was a group of folks who were supposed to who were doing this bungee thing, and there was like a process and the guy would come to one person, get them squared away and tied end and they jump. He was just kind of going down the line. He got to one woman, did one step, she thought she was good to go and jumped without proper communication of saying you can go. She thought she was good. That person also was arrested that's so scary. So I have seen these cases ropes. It's not the equipment failing. And then we see this so often in many things, it's human error in some way.
00:17:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, And I mean I have told you there were plenty of times where and you have too. You've been dangling off a cliff, We've been dangling off of oh god, that building in New York. I've dangled off of the Midian Shamani and thought to myself, I really hope they secured this rope. I mean, it's it's frightening, and it is human error that usually causes it. One last thing before we leave. This was her Instagram has been disabled, but before she died the last post. People Magazine reported this that Maria Eduardo Rodriguez de Freitas put on her Instagram story who was the crazy person who lets me jump off a bridge? And she kind of was joking and took a picture of the of the setup. And and it's just to note that that was her last post. Is just extra eerie just knowing and given what happened.
00:18:31
Speaker 1: Unless you know where her head was, which is exactly where it should have been. Is this is a challenge as an adventure. This is going to be fun. I'm going to be proud of myself that I eventually did it, and I'm in good hands. Her head was exactly where it was supposed to be. This one's man that we talked about too soon, and we see tragedies and we see just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. This one did not have to happen. This wow, This one's stings man. It was her fiance or her fiance.
00:18:57
Speaker 2: She had her fiance there and he had to be taken away to an emergency room as you can only imagine. But our hearts go out, oh to her poor family and friends. This is just a horrific, horrific accident. But we always appreciate you listening to us.
00:19:11
Speaker 3: Everyone.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: I'm Amy Robach alongside DJ Holmes. We will talk to you soon.