A journalist covering the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl in Brazil was believed to have accidentally stepped on her body while filming a segment at the site where she went missing, reports British news outlet The Sun.
According to Brazil news outlet O Imparcial, the girl had gone missing a day before the accidental discovery.
The journalist, Lenildo Frazão, was standing waist-deep in the Mearim River in Bacabal, northeastern Brazil, the last place where the girl, identified only as Raíssa, was seen alive.
He was demonstrating the depth of the river and showing the spot where the teen had been swimming before vanishing.
A clip of the incident shows Lenildo suddenly flinching and jumping back in alarm as he waded further into the water.
He gasped and appeared visibly shaken.
“I think there’s something down here at the bottom of the water,” he told his team.
He then stepped back, refusing to go any further due to fear.
“It looked like an arm. Could it be her? But it might be a fish, too, I don’t know,” he said.
Following his unsettling discovery, rescue teams resumed their search on the morning of 30 June with the help of divers.
Surprisingly, Raíssa’s body was found at the exact spot where Lenildo had been filming.
Source: Onda Digital
While it remains unconfirmed whether he had actually stepped on her, the timing and location suggest it may have been the case.
Raíssa had been cooling off in the river with friends when she drowned.
Lenildo had earlier noted that the current in the river was strong, and there were uneven depths with sudden drops or holes in the riverbed.
A post-mortem confirmed there were no signs of physical trauma.
Her cause of death was recorded as accidental drowning, according to Brazilian news media Já é notícia.
The 13-year-old was laid to rest, surrounded by friends and family, on the evening of 30 June.
Also read: Man in Brazil drives home with dead body on car, did not realise he hit someone
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Featured image adapted from @eitabacabal on TikTok and Onda Digital.