A Brazilian tourist who went missing while hiking near Mount Rinjani has been found dead, officials confirmed.
Juliana Marins, 26, had been backpacking through Vietnam and Thailand before traveling to Indonesia. On Saturday, she was hiking with a group of friends and a guide up Mount Rinjani, the country’s second-highest volcano, when she slipped and fell from a cliff near the crater.
One group member told reporters that the steep trail was slippery and difficult to climb. Visibility was also poor in the area.
Marins initially survived the fall, as rescuers could hear her cries for help.
Drone footage captured by other hikers in the area, which has since been shared online, also showed her alive and in distress, sitting on the ground below a hiking trail.
Despite this, search and rescue teams were unable to locate her after descending 300 meters to where they believed she had landed.
She did not respond to their calls, and thick fog rolled in, further complicating efforts and preventing the use of thermal drones.
By Sunday morning, drone footage showed that Marins was no longer in the spot where she had last been seen.
On Monday, rescuers finally located her again. This time, she had fallen even further down the cliff. However, due to worsening weather conditions, they were forced to suspend the rescue operation.
The search resumed the following day, and rescuers were quickly able to pinpoint Marins’ location. Upon reaching her, however, they found that she showed no signs of life.
Three additional rescue members approached the victim and also confirmed that she was deceased.
According to the search and rescue agency, her body was discovered approximately 600 meters down a ravine.
Poor weather conditions, however, prevented rescuers from retrieving her remains. Recovery efforts are expected to continue on Wednesday morning.
A total of 50 people took part in the operation, said Mohammed Syaffi, who led the rescue team.
During the rescue effort, Marins’ family launched an Instagram account to share updates, which quickly gained over 1.5 million followers. On Thursday, they announced that she had been found unresponsive.
In a subsequent post, they wrote that she did not survive. However, they said they remained grateful for everyones’ prayers and support that they had received.
Mount Rinjanji, the second-tallest volcano in Indonesia at 3,726 meters, attracts thousands of visitors and tourists each year.
In recent years, however, several people have lost their lives attempting to climb it. Just last month, a visitor from Malaysia died while hiking up the mountain.
In 2018, hundreds of visitors and guides also lost their lives after becoming stranded by landslides on the mountain after a 6.4 earthquake hit th eisland.
