21-year-old rope jumper dies in Brazil after safety equipment 'not properly secured'

Editor's note: Readers may find the videos in this article disturbing.

In June 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that a 21-year-old woman died during a rope jump in Brazil because her crew forgot to attach her to security equipment before she jumped.

One example of this claim, which also included a video of three people throwing a fourth person off an elevated structure, had nearly 50 million views on X at the time of this writing. The account that shared it wrote, "JUST IN: 21-year-old dies after workers forget to attach safety rope and push her off 40-meter bridge in São Paulo's Limeira, Brazil."

JUST IN: 21-year-old dies after workers forget to attach safety rope and push her off 40-meter bridge in São Paulo's Limeira, Brazil pic.twitter.com/ceqniPJkUs

— Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) June 13, 2026

The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers also contacted us about the claim.

A spokesperson for the São Paulo state government told Snopes via email that a 21-year-old woman died during an "activity" on the Trilha da Ponte do Esqueleto bridge near Limeira, Brazil, on June 13, 2026. The spokesperson did not confirm the woman's name. Local media identified her as Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, though Snopes could not independently verify her identity by the time of publication. The Associated Press reported that the bridge was 130 feet high.

According to the state government spokesperson, initial police reports indicated that the woman's safety equipment, likely meaning her rope, was not properly secured when she jumped off the bridge. Emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead at an unspecified point after the jump.

Authorities initially arrested six people in connection with the death, the spokesperson said. Three men remained in custody as of this writing.

Given the above, we rate this claim true.

Snopes contacted the Brazilian Military Police, which local reports said was investigating the woman's death, for further information about the incident. We also contacted a lawyer who is reportedly representing the three men in custody for information about his clients' charges. We await replies to our queries.

Videos claim to show woman who died

Our searches returned at least three different videos that claimed to show the 21-year-old woman's final moments on June 13. The videos were recorded on an abandoned bridge near Limeria, in São Paulo state, as identified by geographical markers visible in Google Maps images of the area. 

(@RapidReport2025 and @MarioNawfal, accessed via X, Google Maps, illustrated by Snopes)

The footage did not clearly show whether a safety rope was securely anchored to the bridge, though the jumper appeared to be wearing a safety harness.

The São Paulo state government spokesperson did not confirm the authenticity of the videos appearing to show the fatal jump. Snopes could not find the sources of the videos to confirm their recording date or location through metadata.

Though Snopes could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos that claimed to show the woman falling to her death, they did not display clear signs of artificial intelligence generation or manipulation through other digital editing tools.

3 reportedly investigated over jumper's death

Citing court documents, Brazilian media outlet G1 reported that investigators did not know why the crew released the woman without first ensuring her rope was attached. 

Rafael Gomes dos Santos, who represented the three men held in connection with the 21-year-old's death, reportedly told G1 that his clients were "shocked" and did not understand what led to the fatal jump. Dos Santos' clients allegedly told police that they did not remember who was responsible for checking that the woman's rope was secure before she fell. Such checks were usually delegated among the crew carrying out a jump, though crew members did not always perform the same tasks, according to the report.

G1 reported that Brazilian police were investigating the case as intentional homicide, meaning the suspects assumed the risk of causing death either with or without the intention to kill. The three men held after the 21-year-old's death reportedly appeared in court on June 14.

Snopes could not independently verify the authenticity of the court documents G1 relied on in its report.

On June 15, the city of Limeira, where the Trilha da Ponte do Esqueleto bridge is located, announced (archived) it would sue Brazil's federal government over its failure to inspect, maintain and control access to the bridge. The city's mayor, Murilo Félix, appeared to suggest the federal government's lack of oversight at the bridge made the rope jumper's death possible.

The bridge appeared to be a site commonly used for rope jumping — an extreme sport that differs from bungee jumping because it uses cords that don't cause jumpers to bounce. Google Maps listed it as a "rope jump course," and online searches returned at least one company that offered jumps at the bridge to customers without previous experience. It was unclear whether this activity was sanctioned by either the local or federal government.