The mother of a Brazilian student who died after plummeting from a bridge during an unlicensed bungee jump raged about the fatal mistake — as the local mayor said the company has been a problem for years.
“‘That damned rope took you away from me forever,” Valdenia Rodrigues, mother of 21-year-old Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, said in an Instagram post on Sunday, reported Brazilian outlet Estadao.
“My beloved daughter, only today I wanted to hug you more than a thousand times. How it’s hurting me your departure,.”
De Freitas died after plunging 130 feet off a bridge near Sao Paulo on Saturday when the instructors seemingly failed to attach her safety rope.
Three of the six staff members at the bungee jumping company who were initially arrested have now been charged with de Freitas’s homicide.
“I love you forever, my princess. And thank you so much for being a part of my life during those 21 years. What an honor it was to hear you call me a mother. God, thank you for that privilege,” Rodrigues continued in the emotional post.
“Skeleton Bridge,” the scene of the fateful jump, is so named because it was never finished, after being constructed for a since-defunct railway.
It has become a site for unlicensed extreme sports activities, and was previously the scene of another fatality in April 2024, when a 39-year-old cyclist fell to her death.
“In addition to the circumstances that led to the young woman’s death, it is necessary to establish who is responsible for the lack of access control to a federal area which, for years, has posed known risks and is still without the necessary safety measures,” the mayor of the nearby town of Limeira, Murilo Felix, said on Sunday in a statement.
“We have been calling for action for months to ensure that the Federal Government assumes its responsibility. Unfortunately, its failure to act has just resulted in yet another tragedy in Limeira,” he continued.