Dan Hen, who was accompanying Alma Bohadana when she tragically fell to her death in Rio de Janeiro, had met her at a city hostel. Hen, who has been interrogated by the local police several times, detailed the events leading up to Bohadana's final moments.
In his statement, broadcast on Channel 13, Hen recounted, "We attempted to hail an Uber unsuccessfully, so we proceeded on foot. Around 06:30 p.m., a red car pulled up next to us, from which an elderly man came out, shouting and waving his hands. Alma, terrified, tried to escape by jumping over a low fence and then fell. The suspect, along with the driver, quickly fled the scene."
Noam Arad, whom Hen contacted immediately after Bohadana jumped, explained, "Dan was walking ahead, and she was about two meters behind him. A car stopped between them, the driver stepped out and demanded in English, 'Give it to me, give it to me.' Frightened, Alma didn’t hand over her belongings; instead, she crossed to the other side of the railing."
Hen described the harrowing moments after Alma crossed the barrier: "After searching around in the dark, I found her below. While shouting for a friend to call an ambulance, I did everything I could to keep her alive. I never left her side. When I realized she was losing strength and her pulse was weak, I performed CPR on her. Even when the ambulance arrived and she was no longer alive, I continued CPR without stopping."
Arad shared the distressing call he received from Hen just after the incident: "Dan calls me and says, 'Noam, they tried to rob us. Alma jumped off some bridge; I think she's dead.' Ten minutes after she jumped, Dan found Alma, and I was on the phone with them, insisting, 'Alma's alive, she's 100% alive.' Then he called again to tell me she had no pulse."
On Wednesday morning, it was reported that local police were investigating the incident in which Bohadana fled and fell to her death. According to local media, Hen, who was with her at the time, has been questioned three times, providing conflicting accounts of the event.
Initially, he reported that a motorcyclist approached them, but during a second interrogation, he changed his statement, saying it was a suspect in a red car. According to the police report from the previous day, the two were walking at around 07:00 p.m. when they thought a motorcyclist was trying to rob them. In his third interrogation, Hen told the police that he and Bohadana first met at a hostel in Copacabana, Rio. Investigators plan to review area surveillance footage as part of the investigation.
The Israeli embassy in Brazil is making arrangements to transport Bohadana's body back to Israel. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "This is a sad and challenging case where a young Israeli woman died due to falling from a great height in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"The Department for Israelis Abroad at the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli embassy in Brasilia, along with Netta Avrahami and Mariano Hirsch from the Jewish Agency in Rio de Janeiro, are assisting the family during this difficult time and in making arrangements for her burial in Israel."