Weeks before Juliana Marins plummeted to her fate off the side of an active volcano, she texted her family “I’m not afraid.”
The tourist’s mom, Estela Marins, revealed the eerily ironic message this week only days after the backpacker was confirmed dead.
Marins, 26, wrote the message at the start of her doomed Southeast Asia trip.
“Mami, I love you so much. I was heartbroken when we said goodbye,” she wrote. “In fact, that’s the only thing that worries me: letting you, papi or my sister be disappointed. Other than that, I’m not afraid of much, much less trouble.”
She continued: “I was raised by a woman who can solve any problem and who is not afraid to take the plunge and go after her dreams. I am like that too. I have different desires and dreams.”
Her last message was just as heartbreaking.
“I love you all very much! And I will always be grateful for all the support, care and affection,” she wrote. “That is what makes me not afraid.”
In a horrific turn of events, Marins would die only weeks later after falling more than 1,600 feet from a cliff on a hike up Mount Rinjani, Indonesia’s second-largest active volcano.
The young woman was trapped for four days screaming for help after her tour guide left her exhausted on the trail. She rested an hour before the fatal fall that sent her deep into Mount Rinjani’s crater.
Marins’ family—and the whole world—watched anxiously as officials launched a multi-day attempt to retrieve her. But Marins’ family slammed the rescue efforts, insisting that she had been left for dead and that the Indonesian government was lying about her access to food and water.
Marins’ body is due to arrive in Brazil Tuesday, and a second autopsy will be carried out to determine whether she could’ve survived if rescue teams were prepared to reach her sooner.
The first autopsy, which was done in Bali, found that she died from trauma within 20 minutes. But drone footage of her alive and witness accounts of her screaming have cast doubt on that ruling.
“The embassy is not offering any support,” Marins’ father told Brazil’s TV Globo as he pled teams to move faster. “The Brazilian government, which we’ve tried to contact, is also not helping us. This is very sad and extremely serious. She is a 26-year-old girl, a Brazilian citizen, and no one—except family and friends—seems to care.”
Efforts to save Marins kept getting held up. The visibility was poor and weather conditions were unpredictable. As teams rushed to reach her, Marins sadly slipped further and further into the volcano. Indonesian officials provided false information that Marins had received supplies, something that the Brazilian embassy repeated. When it turned out to be false, the ambassador admitted that he passed on inaccurate information.
Four days after her fall, it was too late to save Marins.
“Today, the rescue team managed to reach the place where Juliana Marins was,” her family said on social media. “With great sadness, we inform you that she did not survive. We remain very grateful for all the prayers, messages of affection and support that we have received.”
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