Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, 32 years old, He is one of those arrested by the homicide of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitasthe 21-year-old girl who died after being thrown without rope from a bridge on Saturday in the city of Limeira, São Paulo state.
The Brazilian Justice determined the preventive detention for the three instructors involved in the tragic death of Maria Eduarda. Judge Paulo Henrique Stahlberg Natal ordered preventive detention for Egoroff and his two companions, Vitor de Freitas Gonçalves and Maicon Fernandes Cintra.
The judicial decision was made based on indications of an escape attempt by the accused, who tried to leave the scene of the incident. While the investigation continues, the content of the social networks of the three men, who claimed to be instructors of rope jumping (jumping rope).
The video of Luis Felipe Feliciano Egoroff, one of those arrested for the murder of Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas
Egoroff had several videos uploaded to his Instagram account, he claimed to work for the adventure tourism company «Entre Cuerdas», which the deceased young woman hired – a company that was not formally registered and only existed on social networks – and in one of his publications he is seen jumping from the same bridge with a child in his arms.
In the short clip you can see him gaining momentum in the Skeleton Bridge40 meters high, while he has the child attached to his chest with a harness – the little one holds him tightly by the neck with both arms – he runs to the end of the platform and jumps into the void.
The terrifying video was recorded in June 2023, three years before the young woman was thrown into the void from the same place where María Eduarda was thrown.
In another video from February, Egoroff and another instructor threw another young man in the exact same «airplane» position, which is not recommended for beginners, according to the outlet. The Globe after consulting multiple specialists.
The man showed his «aerial acrobatics» with elastic ropes, avoiding concrete columns during his jump and thus demonstrating his alleged skills in the air.
The same Brazilian media indicates that Egoroff declared to the police that he earned approximately 180 reais per jump, which translates into $35, and that the tasks of verifying the ropes and the safety of the jumpers were carried out «jointly» with his colleagues.
Investigators asked him if he was responsible for installing the safety equipment or carrying out the final inspection before María Eduarda’s jump, and Luis Felipe responded that he did not remember, according to the newspaper. Fantastic.
The jump of horror in Brazil: there was no double verification
The lack of fixed division of tasks during jumps is also considered a blunder, as each role performs vital functions in securing the participants. The three accused denied having responsibility in the death of María Eduarda.
Marco Antonio Junior, known as Jota, president of the Brazilian Jump Rope and Human Pendulum Association (ABRJH), explained to The Globe that this type of jump requires a double check, something that did not happen when the victim was thrown from a height of 40 meters without the three instructors present noticing the absence of the safety rope.
«When I saw the video I thought: ‘This explains why it happened’. There is no minimum safety standard; three people doing the same job, they picked her up, lifted her up and threw her like a sack of potatoes. They didn’t care at all about the person’s life. Nothing. It’s grotesque,» said Jota.
«The jump did not have any safety standard. One instructor has to hold the rope to the client and the other instructor must verify that the rope is securely fastened. That is what a tandem jump is for, but here there were three people doing the same thing, fulfilling the same function, without having any idea what they were doing,» he said.
The professional responsible for tying and adjusting the rope to the correct height is known as a «rigger.» «It’s not just about putting the rope on the person and believing that the technician left it at the correct height, because he is also human and can make mistakes, the instructor’s obligation is to go to the edge of the platform, grab the rope and take the measurement as a double check, but they did nothing, absolutely nothing. In fact, they had no protocol,» Jota attacked.
Investigators were also struck by the immediate deactivation of the social networks of the company that offered «rope jumping» services with the promise of an «extraordinary jump.» They had more than 80,000 followers on Instagram and their slogan was: «You dream. We make it come true.»
In the midst of the commotion generated by the death of the young woman, the municipality of Limeira announced that it will file a lawsuit against the federal government for the state of abandonment in which the bridge is located, commonly used by extreme athletes to perform their jumps, and the lack of controls by the authorities.
