A chilling incident unfolded in Bacabal, northeastern Brazil, as a journalist unwittingly stood on the body of a 13-year-old girl while reporting on her disappearance from the Mearim River.
Lenildo Frazão, the reporter, was demonstrating the depth of the water and the spot where the child had been swimming when he suddenly felt something brush against his leg. He immediately jumped away from the spot, visibly shaken.
Frazão alerted his team, expressing concern that he might have stumbled upon the missing girl’s body. “I think! there’s something down here at the bottom of the water,” he said.
“It looked like an arm – could it be her? But it might be a fish too, I don’t know.”
Following Frazão’s report, firefighters resumed the search for the victim on the morning of June 30, with the support of divers.
The schoolgirl’s body was later found at the exact spot where the journalist had been filming.
An investigation into the incident revealed that the victim, identified as Raíssa, drowned while cooling off with friends in the river.
A post-mortem examination showed no signs of physical trauma, and the cause of death was recorded as accidental drowning.
Raíssa was laid to rest on the evening of June 30.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the body Frazão felt was indeed Raíssa’s, but the incident highlights the importance of continued search efforts in such cases.