7 Chilling New Details in Woman's Fatal Rope Jump Investigation

Were there any red flags leading up to. the death of the young woman who was. allegedly thrown off a bridge in a rope. jumping incident gone horribly wrong? What steps should have been taken? What. was supposed to happen? I'm going to. bring on an expert in this field as we. [music] also address new developments in. the case. Welcome to Sidebar presented. by Law & Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, real quick before we go any. further into this. I know it's a little. bit of a 180, but it's important. Did. you know that 82% [music]. of Americans don't have a high-yield.

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little bit more about this unfolding. tragic situation in Brazil that has. gotten so much attention both in the. media and online, and rightfully so. This is not a case you see every day. We're talking about the fatal fall of. this 21-year-old woman, Maria Eduarda. Rodrigues de Freitas, who plunged to her. death in a roping incident where she was. allegedly tossed off an abandoned bridge. and wasn't attached to any rope or. cords, 130 ft down. Horrible.

And it was all apparently caught on. video that is circulated on social. media. We can seemingly hear bystanders. on the tape screaming in Portuguese, "The rope, people, the rope." So, in a. little we're going to be bringing on a. bungee, a roping expert to talk about. potential red flags, liability, what. should have been done. Because right. now, three instructors are facing. charges. Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32 years old. Vitor de Freitas. Gonçalves, 27 years old. And Maicon.

Fernandes Cintra, 42 years old. They. were arrested and they're charged with. what we understand to be in Brazil. homicide with eventual intent to. allegedly fled the scene before they. were captured. And by the way, according. to NBC News, Brazilian law characterizes. this as killing someone not necessarily. with the intent to kill, but by engaging. in a dangerous act that carries a known. risk of death. And since we last spoke, there have been some developments here. So, you might recall that we discussed. how this all happened at a bridge in.

Lumiar, a city over 90 miles north of. São Paulo, Brazil. This is known as. Skeleton Bridge. It was part of a rail. line. It hasn't been in operation for 30. years. And as we reported last time, according to 30 UOL Anos, the. municipality was considering taking. legal action against the federal. government over alleged negligence in. maintaining and controlling access to. this bridge. The city government. reportedly said that it had previously. sent letters to the federal government. requesting there be security inspections. of this bridge. Well, guess what.

happened since we last spoke. Reportedly, councilwoman Bruna Magalhães. reportedly confirmed. to Bathi Notícias that this bridge is. going to be torn down by the federal. government now. Kind of makes you think. it had to take something like this for. that to happen. I mean, assuming all the. allegations are true about this bridge. And also from a legal point of view, I. got to also say. kind of have that consciousness of guilt. kind of thing, right? Tearing it down. because do you agree there's a risk. there? Now Magalhães said, quote, "The federal. government authorized it. The mayor.

provided the equipment and now the. bridge will be demolished. The important. thing is that lives will not be lost. here." Now here's something else that's. interesting. Social media influencer. Estefani Gonzalez posted that she was at. that same skeleton bridge the month. before this happened. That she engaged. in the same kind of rope jumping. activity with the same instructors, the. same suspects, the same defendants. And. she posted a video of her looking like. Superman style jump on her Instagram. page back in May and it wasn't just her.

She said there were 90 participants that. day. After Maria Eduarda's death, she. opened up about what she experienced in. a series of videos. And one of the. things she said was that the organizers. of this activity apparently told. participants not to distract the rope. operators. That they didn't want them to. lose attention, lose focus. She said. that in her experience there were. several safety checks of the equipment, that the operators would share duties. So with that in mind, she says when it. comes to Maria Eduarda, quote, "I don't.

really know what happened." Now you also. have delegate Andrea Dantas Leavy who. told the outlet O Globo that the company. operating this rope jump, quote, "didn't. even have authorization to be there.". And that this was a result of a failure. to verify and supervise the placement of. that rope on the jump. G1 reports that. in the video the men allegedly carrying. Maria Eduarda appear to be wearing. shirts emblazoned with the brands Andre. Cordas and Evoy. Authorities say these. are informal groups of rope jumping.

practitioners. There's no official. company behind this operation. And. according to the New York Post a defense. attorney for the suspects said that they. don't know who was responsible for. attaching the safety line that day. Defense counsel also reportedly told the. G1 outlet that these individuals were. highly experienced. That this had been. the company's only death in years. According to NBC News, defense lawyer. said the suspects are in shock. According to O Globo, they apparently. didn't have a reason why this young. woman was reportedly not secured. properly. G1 reported that the suspects.

also appeared disoriented. That they. couldn't say again whose job it was to. do what that day or explain why the rope. wasn't attached, why safety check wasn't. apparently done. I will tell you, according to Bacci and the CS, one of. these individuals that was arrested. allegedly told authorities he didn't. even realize that Maria Eduarda hadn't. been secured and only understood what. was going on when he heard people. screaming. That's when he claims he left. the platform, saw what happened, claims. he repels down, sees police and a.

healthcare professional performing. life-saving measures. Now, before I even. bring on this bungee roping instructor, cuz I have a lot of questions about how. this works and what should have been. done. On our last show, I spoke to Adriel de. Barca, who's a Brazilian criminal. defense attorney, because I wanted to. get a better sense of the charges, the. criminal process, and the case. Here's a. little bit of what she had to say. >> They're being charged with homicide. Um. This case it brings up. a very old debate about intent or blame,

which is what we call dollo or culpa. They're being initially charged with. homicide with the intention to kill. somebody, which is homicidio doloso. So, here's what's going on. This case has. brought a lot of media attention to it. And when this happens, sometimes these. cases are dealt with. in a different way that they would be. dealt. in other. in other cases. For example, we have.

many other cases, similar cases of. accidents with sports, and those were. always dealt with as non-intentional, as. negligence, as impericia. And this case, because of the media attention, it's. been dealt like it was intentional for. them to kill these people, which as a. lawyer, personally, I don't think those. apply. This is why there are they are in. jail right now. Because when it comes to.

a case of homicide where there is no. blame where there's negligence with with. which you call homicidio culposo, where. we talk about the negligence, imprudencia, the the duty to protect but the absence. of protection, those cases, they are not punishable by. prison. You don't get in prison because. of this type of crime a crime. So, when. you don't get in prison for some type of. crime, you can't be in preventive. detention. That's what's going on right.

now. They are There are three people in. preventive detention because of this. crime. And in order to get that. preventive detention, they have to. charge them initially with homicidio. doloso. I imagine that the defense is. going to argue that this is a case of. culpa. This is a case of homicidio. culposo. And why is that? There's a line. in criminal doctrine, which is we have. dolo eventual and culpa consciente, which is in one side, you have the.

intent, but it's not exactly the clear. You know that there's a risk and you. don't care that somebody might die. because of that. And in culpa. consciente, you have a situation where. you know there's a risk, but you hope. that it's not going to happen. In your. conscious, you're clear that you're. trying your best to not make it to not. let that happen. And here's the catch. This is very difficult to prove in. court. So, when you have any type of. doubt, the court has to rule in favor in. favor of the defendant. This is why I.

believe this is going to fall as. homicidio culposo because it's going to. be very hard to prove intent in this. case. Even though there is a lot of. negligence and there were a lot of. things that happened in order for this. accident to take place where there. should be more responsibility. The. government should have blocked the. bridge. The police should have been. seeing what is going on if they know. that there's always the risk of this. accident that people go there to jump. There should be some kind of security.

there. The people that wanted to make. this jump they should have at least. ordered an authorization. They should. have a a legal company at least and they. and they didn't. Every other thing that happened to make. this possible, to make this horrible. accident possible. But in court, which. is what is going to be analyzed. actually, is only the fact in that day. that led to that accident. So you have. um federal authorities and state. authorities and the police that are.

going to answer this and. administratively. they're going to answer this in their or. uh their own companies. But as to the. death itself, it's going to fall only on. the people that were there at the moment. that were carrying her, that should have. secured her. And for those people, it's. going to be very hard to prove that he. had they had the intent of killing her. >> Okay, I want to bring on an expert in. this field. I'm joined by Matt Lawrence, director of Bungee Consultants.

International. Thank you so much for. coming on. I definitely wanted to get. your kind of voice on this uh to. understand it cuz I have a lot of. questions. So first of all, what is the. difference between bungee jumping and. rope jumping? Cuz I feel like sometimes. the two get conflated and even with this. story, there seems to be confusion. between the two. >> Great. Yeah, that's a great question. Um. So the activity that we were looking at. here was, like you said, called a rope. swing or a rope jump. And and for the. untrained eye. this could look very much like a bungee.

jump, but it's not. Um there's no bungee. cords there here in this activity. Uh. Um, the dissipation of the potential. energy, let's call it, is done through. air drag, um, the pendulum swinging. motion. Whereas in bungee jumping, that. is done through the, uh, dissipation of. energy through the up and down. rebounding that the, uh, that the rubber. stores in the cord. So, you're bouncing. up and down, slowly getting oscillations. getting smaller and smaller, and that's. how that energy's dissipated. So, it's. Although they look quite similar in. terms of, you know, someone jumping off.

a structure, they are quite different. and they are treated differently, um, with regulations. >> I want to get into that, but is rope. jumping more dangerous? >> Um, if done correctly, it doesn't have to be. more dangerous. It's really how it's how. it's done. It, you know, um, it could be more. dangerous if it's not done correctly. >> Are the cords and the safety equipment. different? I mean, you talked about not. being a bungee cord, but is the. equipment different? >> Well, this is the thing about one one. activity is fairly regulated and the. other isn't. So, you could use a wide.

range of equipment in an in an activity. that's not regulated. So, if you There. can be very safe equipment that could be. used, um, but there's also the potential. to be, uh, have use very unsafe. equipment. So, it's There's not a like. safe unsafe. >> Talk to me about what you mean it's. regulated. Um, who regulates it and is. it regulated different in different. countries? >> Yes. Um, so, uh, well, let Again, I can only I'm. a bungee jumping expert, um, and and I don't I don't.

I'm not an expert in rope jumping, but, um, my understanding is that rope jumping. being being a fairly new activity is not. highly regulated. I have no knowledge of. any safety standards that exist out. there for for that. There are many. safety standards for bungee jumping, um, depending on which jurisdiction you are. in, uh, you will be using, uh, you know, one or the other. Um, but as in terms. of, uh, rope jumps, uh, no safety standards exist. So, that is. really the main problem. And when And.

when you ask something like, "How could. this happen?". Um, you know, the answers to that are the barriers for. entry into that activity are quite low, and anybody with a harness and a rope. can really and and and really with the. knowledge that they they they they think. they can go ahead and do this, can do so. and make a quick buck doing it. They're. operating in in an environment with no. safety or no recognized safety. standards, and that safety standard is a. key element in the ecosystem to create. any safe environment for a consumer. And. a good safety standard will govern all. aspects of of the operation, the design,

the manufacture of all the equipment, and the operation of the activity. itself. And then the third component that's. missing here is, um, the oversight. So, you can follow a. safety standard and and do it very well, um, and get away with that. And in some. jurisdictions, there are no safety. standards, and people are being being. responsible and following uh or sorry, no no oversight, and they're just. following a safety standard. But that. third ingredient is the oversight. And. what I mean by that is the governing. body or other body, which we call the.

authority having jurisdiction or the. AHJ, and they will regulate the the activity. according to the safety standard that. that it that exists here. So, without. those components, it gets a little bit. dicier, you know? Um, now, in bungee jumping, for example, the barriers to entry are quite high. Takes a lot to invest the the time and. effort to create a bungee site, you. know? You need different equipment. You. need to create a structures. And with. those regulations, you need to go. through a lot of engineering and so. forth to get to that point where you can. actually open the doors. Yeah, if you.

don't have that, um, you can't do that, you know? >> And I I haven't understand like who you. can who can sell and buy the equipment, right? Becomes regulated, too, which I. think is a good thing when you talk. about an inherently, you know, a. dangerous activity. But at the same. time, if it's properly regulated and. there's the safety checks, I mean, you. before we even get into this, do you see. a lot of accidents? Like you talk about. rope jumping. First of all, is rope. jumping becoming more and more popular? Are you seeing more reports of. accidents? And even in bungee jumping in. general, going there,

typically speaking, do you see a lot of. accidents? >> Um so, for the rope jumps, um I again, you know, we we when the when something. happens, we hear about it, right? Because a lot of people equate, "Oh, this is this is bungee jumping. Look, the people are jumping off stuff.". That's So, so we hear about all that. stuff. So, they do become a little bit. more prevalent um as time goes on and. that seems to me that that that activity. is gaining some momentum and that other. people are doing it. And with that. barrier to entry being very low, um. we we could see a lot more of them.

And so, I think it is a great time for, you know, a regulator and and these. jurisdictions to get on top of it. before, you know, other serious. accidents occur. >> Let's go to what happened here. So, you. read about it. You see the video. When you look at her, are there any red. flags that pop out to you? >> Yeah. Well, first and foremost, my my. heart goes out to the victim and her. family and and what was a tragic but. very, in my opinion, very very. preventable incident. And yeah, how. could it be been prevented? Well, I. can't comment on really the video.

footage is very limited, so what you see. is, you know, you see just a clip. So, it's it's it's quite hard to tell. how the provider of that service is. operating based on that limited footage. that is available. So, I can't go very. specific on that. However, what I can. tell you is had they been operating in. an environment, which I just described, which is that standard environment with. that regulator, this is what it could. have looked like. So, there would have. been a site operations manual there that. would have outlined many things um which. can't see in that video again. You know, the manual would have called for a lot. of site infrastructure, such as, you.

know, physical barriers that separate. clients from public, from where the. equipment is being stored when it's in. use and when it's not in use, um where. you know, the barriers such as fencing, safety lines, controlled areas where. people can't just walk into. And that. there's a certain protocol for the. procedures. Are they attached up at the. edge? Are are they attached up in a safe. area? So, when you're in a in a. regulated environment with a standard, you're not free to walk around. If. you're able to walk around and, you. know, go and touch everything and walk. into the same area that the participants. are in, you know, that's a big red flag.

But, um you know, there's a lot of. things that, as a consumer, if you want. to see um do your research, you you. there's lots of things you can do to um. you know, either bef- before and after. you arrive at the location to determine. whether or not this is going to be a. good thing. In advance, if this is a. real company, they would have a real. company with a business registration, you could look that up. Look up the name. of the company. Do they have a real. website that isn't not just a social. media page? Do they have a permanent. operation with real brick and mortar? If. a company does, they they put.

significant investment into their. attraction, and they have a lot more to. lose and a lot more to be careful for. You can ask if they have insurance. You. can ask if they follow a safety. standard. You can ask how much. experience they have in terms of the. number of dispatches they've done and. the number of years they've been in. operating. So, those are all things you. can do in advance. Once you get there, um. there are some basic things that you can. look for. Um. and I wanted to go back to um what I. mentioned about the safety standards. If. you're following a safety standards, and. I'll just give you I'm going to use.

bungee jumping as the example because. that's what's what we're I'm an expert. in. Our safety standards are governed by. two fundamental principles. One is. called redundancy, the other is called. competency, and they apply to both. equipment and procedures. Let's talk. about competency and and equipment. If a. piece of equipment is competent, the. load are above like let's say a 10:1. ratio above what they need to be for the. activity. And they're also designed and. suited for doing what you're doing with. them during that activity. As far as. people go, when we talk about. competence, if someone is competent, they will have the required knowledge,

skills, training, and experience to. perform that safely, which means they've. gone through some type of courses, the. onsite training program of the operator. as well. You know, you have competent. equipment and a competent people. And. then when we talk about redundancy, we're also talking about procedures and. equipment. So, if you're a guest on site. and you're and you're looking at this, when I talk about redundancy, let's look. at the harnesses. Are there two. harnesses on that person? Or does that. single harness have two attachment. points that allow, you know, two. attachments so that if one fails, you. have the other one. >> you about that real quick? So so you're. talking Is there a backup? Like, for.

example, I don't know if this is the. cases that happen, but if somebody's. like, "Oh my gosh, we forgot one cord. We forgot one rope. There's a backup in. case somebody forgets it." Like, is that. something that exists? >> And that's in the layman's terms that's. what redundancy is as we apply to. equipment, okay? So, when you say a. backup, is there So, is there a backup. harness? Let's let's just use that. wording. So, is there two harnesses? Is. there a backup harness? Is there two. ropes that are attaching that person to. the harnesses that connect to the. structure? That's a backup. Is there two. carabiners that attach those ropes to.

each connection point on the harness? There's the other backup. So, those are. all things that, you know, just a. layperson can look at and say, "I I. don't see that second carabiner. I don't. see that second rope. This is just a. single point of attachment. This doesn't. look very good." And then when we talk. about procedures, and this is the other. big one, when we talk about redundancy. for procedures, it's again the backup. procedure. So, if someone's putting a. harness on you, is there a second person. going around checking that adjustment, making sure it was tightened properly, and and secured properly? Is there a. second person looking at that connection. with that you did with that carabiner. after the first person did it? You could.

have two carabiners on there, but if. only one person's doing it, maybe one of. them doesn't get done up properly. He. got distracted by the person beside him. talking to him, asking him a question. So, that second person checking all. those connection points is very. important in creating redundancy. uh on [clears throat] a bungee jumping. site or in a rope swing. That complies. equally to to both. >> One of the things that I mean, the main. aspect about this is when you see the. video, if these allegations are true, looks like the rope is right there. You. see it tangled up, right? I mean, that's. the the argument there. How is it. possible they didn't notice it, right?

If that if they're they're accused of. that. Does become a question, you know, if why how could you not notice it? And. it was reported, when you look at the. video, Maria Eduarda appears to be. wearing a helmet and harness, but she. wasn't attached to the safety equipment. The instructors, the argument is, do. seem to be attached to a safety rope. So, there seems to be that level, or. arguably that level of consciousness. How do you just not see the rope there? How do you not see she's attached when. hanging her, unless, like you said, there's an issue of competency, or. there's an issue of uh of distraction.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so we don't know if. that is the rope that was actually. supposed to be used for that. It It. could have been. It It may not have. been. It could be attached somewhere. It's probably attached somewhere on the. bridge, and it's just waiting for them. to attach it to the person. That rope. there, I don't know if it I couldn't. tell if it was long enough, or strong. enough, or whatever, to be the actual. rope that was supposed to be being used. What is evident though, that there is no. rope attached to that person. That is. very very evident in in the video. And. again, that's just simple. Like, again, if you have a site operations manual, and you have competent people, what's. required when you write a site.

operations manual is a series of. checklists that everybody has to go. through as they're performing the. hookups. And so, it's like, before that. person gets to the edge, there's 10. things that have to happen. Okay, first. of all, let's check the harnesses. Double-check the harnesses. Second, pick up the rope. Connect it to. the thing. That gets double-checked as. well. And And before that, they can even. get it detached from their safety line, which, you know, um there should be a. safety line on that person until they. are connected to the whole entire. rigging system. So,

all those things have to happen. Harness. checks, connection checks, anchor. checks, um before anybody can even just. proceed to the point where they can even. get into a position to jump. And then, once they get into that position, there's another series of checks that. And that have to happen. Okay, put your. feet to the edge. Get to this point. Get. to that point. I'm going to count to. three. You're going to do this. You're. going to do that. And if those aren't. occurring properly, you need to pull. back and start over. So, there was a. very low level in that video of of what.

the actual procedures were, and and the. order of those procedures. And so, again, uh what could have happened. Yeah, people are distracted by by lights. and cameras and and saying here's what I. want to do. They're all caught up and I. got to get the shot instead of focusing. on the safety. And the crew members have. just got to zone all that out and be. able to go through their checklist, if. they have any, to create that safe jump. And my guess is they probably didn't. have a written site operations manual.

where that that they could even follow. Otherwise, it doesn't happen. If you. have that, you're just an environment. where that works. And and if they don't, it's it's probably what happened. >> What's confusing is, you know, you have. defense counsel for at least one or all. the suspects saying this is the first. time anything like this has happened. They've done so many before. Um I talked. earlier about how an influencer did a. jump on that same bridge with the same. operators. They said there was safety. checks. There were 90 participants that. day. Takes just obviously one thing like. this to happen and everything changes. and you wish it didn't, but that's.

confusing, too. Right? It's not like. they were operating for 2 days and then. this happened that, you know, people. make mistakes, but at the same time, how does something like this happen? >> Yeah, well, you you can ride a horse. backward your whole life and never fall. off that horse. You know, and so but. there's elements of of of um. you know, you. there's layers to the onion, okay? So, and and if you if you only got a couple. layers, you you could be safe for a long. time. Oh, am I getting away with not. having that double-check cuz my one guy, he's doing it right every time. But. eventually, it catches up to you. You.

know, eventually, you get it. And so. this is where, you know, it just needs a. bit more structure and regulation and. >> [clears throat]. >> A lot of more questions are going to be. asked about this. Matt Lorenz, thank you. so much for coming on and uh trying to. make sense of what we're seeing here. I. really appreciate it. >> You're quite welcome. Anytime. Thank. you. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so. much for joining us and as always, please subscribe [music] on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you. should get your podcast. You can also. check us out on NBC's Peacock [music] as. well. If you want to follow me, X,

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