Now investigators say the three instructors still can’t clearly explain who performed the final safety verification before Maria Eduarda’s fatal jump. That missing answer has become the focus of the case….
Three people have been accused of taking the camera Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was wearing at the time of her fatal bungee jump
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Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas.Credit : Facebook
A camera worn by a woman who died while bungee jumping in Brazil has gone missing.
On Saturday, June 20, the police arrested three more people in connection with the death of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, according to Brazilian outlets 1 and CNN Brasil. The trio has been accused of taking a camera that de Freitas, 21, was wearing when she fell 130 feet to her death from a bridge in Limeira, São Paulo.
Evelyne dos Santos Gonçalves, 29, a 25-year-old man and a 27-year-old man have also been accused of deleting digital content, the outlets reported, citing the Civil Police.
“During the investigation, elements were gathered that indicate possible suppression of evidence relevant to the investigation, especially related to the disappearance of the image capture equipment used by the victim during the jump,” Civil Police Delegate Andréa Levy told G1.
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Witness Rafael Goulart said, per The U.S. Sun, “I saw the girl on the ground, [I saw] 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.”
The three people arrested on Saturday were allegedly on the ground at the bungee jump site waiting to remove safety gear from the participant afterward. They allegedly fled the scene to a nearby wooded area and attempted to conceal the evidence, G1 and CNN Brasil reported, citing police records.
“They didn’t have a typical or active role in the jump. They only participated at the moment the jump ended,” Gonçalves’ lawyer Vitor Aurélio told G1. “One would pull the rope back up and the other would just take the rope off the jumper.”
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Aurélio said that one of the suspects “saw the camera” after the victim fell. “It’s in his interest for the camera to appear here, because he provided assistance and didn’t participate in anything,” he said.
The camera has still not been found a week after the incident.
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Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32, Vitor de Freitas Goncalves, 27, and Maicon Fernandes Cintra, 42, were previously arrested and charged with homicide with eventual intent in connection with de Freitas’ death, NBC News reported.
According to the Associated Press, Levy said the three suspects claim that they “do not remember whether they forgot to attach (the ropes), or who was supposed to do it, or who failed to check. But the fact is the ropes were not attached to her.”
São Paulo’s Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) told CNN Brasil, “The Civil Police are continuing their investigations to fully clarify the dynamics of the events, identify all criminal responsibilities, and locate the camera used by the victim at the time of the jump, considered an important element for reconstructing what happened.”
PEOPLE has reached out to the Civil Police and SSP for comment.
