‘Let’s go!’ Elizaveta Gushchina screamed before falling 290ft from the top of an abandoned boiler tower near the Russian city of St Petersburg.
‘Liza’, an extreme sports fanatic celebrating her 45th birthday with her son, dived down to the base of the boiler, shouting with elation as she cut through the air.
The jump would tragically be her last. The mother-of-two climbed back up to the top of the tower without safety ropes to mark the moment with a selfie.
But in an instant, after posing for a photo before the blue skies over Petersburg, the experienced jumper slipped and fell to her death in front of her son.
23block, which operates the popular facility for daredevils, confirmed Ms Gushchina, an established member of their sports team, had tragically lost her life.
‘The whole team is mourning her loss,’ they said.
Cameras are now in every pocket in every corner of the world. As a result, they are so often the first things we reach for when we witness tragedy.
Countless moments of horror in the modern age have been caught on tape.
Whether it be a hiker’s smile atop a 24,000ft mountain before she was left to die or the swan song of a talented singer who passed away hours after her performance, camera-phones have bore witness to many a haunting last moment.
Mother falls 290ft to her death taking a selfie in front of her son moments after successful bungee jump
The mother had shared footage of her successful leap, which saw her swinging from an ‘elastic rope’ just above the ground
Elizaveta ‘Liza’ Gushchina, fell 290ft to her death in front of her son while trying to take a selfie on a tower moments after a successful bungee jump on her 45th birthday
A mother fell 290ft to her death in front of her son while trying to take a selfie on a tower moments after a successful bungee jump on her 45th birthday.
Elizaveta ‘Liza’ Gushchina, an extreme sports fanatic, ‘slipped and fell’ 290ft to her death from the same tower which she made a spectacular high-adrenaline rope jump from just minutes earlier as she celebrated her birthday.
Her distraught son Nikita, 23, was with her at the abandoned boiler tower – now used for daredevil rope jumps – when she fell in Pavlovsk, near Russian city St Petersburg.
‘Without safety ropes, she climbed back up, slipped and fell down’ – a height of 290ft, reported TV Zvezda, run by the Russian defence ministry.
The mother-of-two had shared footage of her successful leap, which saw her swinging from an ‘elastic rope’ just above the ground.
Before she is helped off the platform, the woman laughs and says ‘Let’s go!’.
She is heard screaming with joy as she goes down.
Gushchina was uninjured from her birthday leap but soon afterwards climbed back up the tower to ‘take a selfie as a keepsake’, before she fell, witnesses said.
The state prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the woman’s death, according to reports.
‘They will ascertain whether the organisers of the attraction complied with the law when providing services.’
Haunting last picture shows smiling female mountaineer before she was ‘left to die’ with broken leg up 24,000ft peak
A haunting final photograph shows the 47-year-old mother-of-one bravely smiling for the camera, her shattered leg stabilised with a spare tent pole
A haunting final photograph has emerged of Russian mountaineer Natalia Nagovitsina, who was left stranded on a remote 24,406ft peak after breaking her leg.
The image shows the 47-year-old mother-of-one bravely smiling for the camera, her shattered leg stabilised with a spare tent pole. At the time, hopes were still high that she could be saved.
Incredibly, Natalia survived for almost a week after the photograph – first published by Izvestia – was taken with Italian climber Luca Sinigaglia.
In that time, she endured freezing winds and temperatures plunging to minus 20C. One week later, she was even spotted waving to a drone.
But despite her extraordinary fight for life, rescuers were unable to get a helicopter capable of reaching her altitude.
Mostly, the weather was too severe – but critics insist there were small windows when she might have been reached, if an aircraft and crew had been ready.
Instead, attempts were made to climb to her position. But rescuers were twice turned back, once by a storm and once when their team leader was injured.
Singer drops dead just hours after live performance
Luna Alves died of a heart attack -her family said – moments after falling ill at her home in Cuiabá, Brazil. The 39-year-old mother-of-two had performed at a local bar Saturday night
Just hours before she went to sleep and died of a heart attack, Brazilian singer Luna Alves posted a touching video on her Instagram Stories in which she expressed how thankful she was after she was showered with praise following her show at a local bar
A singer suffered a heart attack and died just hours after she had performed at a bar in Brazil, her family said.
Luna Alves, 39, was sleeping at her home in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso when her husband, Guilherme Schreiner, woke up and noticed that she was unwell.
Schreiner, who is also a musician, told Brazilian news outlet G1 that he called the emergency services line and was assisted by doctor on the phone, who provided instructions until paramedics arrived.
‘I went to bed at 1:40 a.m., and she was doing great. We started watching videos and then went to sleep,’ he said.
‘Around 5:10 a.m., I heard her feeling unwell in bed and got up to call emergency services. The doctor stayed on the line with me, helping me. Emergency services didn’t stay long, but unfortunately, they pronounced her dead.’
Schreiner told the outlet that she did not show any signs of feeling unwell during her last performance.
A video showed Alves singing one of her songs as Schreiner sat next to her playing the guitar.
As she was settling down to go to bed, Alves recorded a minute-long video in which she expressed her thanks for all of the kind words she received at her show.
Alves is survived by Schreiner, whom she was married to for three and a half years, and two daughters, ages 9 and 19, for her previous relationship.
Killed by a rampaging 1,500lb bull in front of horrified crowds
He was rushed to São José Hospital where he was put in an induced coma, but he died within 24 hours on August 23 after irreparable brain damage
Paramedics rushed to treat Trindade in the ring but the injuries to his head were severe
Manuel Maria Trindade, a 22-year-old ‘forcado’, was renowned for delighting crowds by dodging rampaging bulls.
But joy turned to tragedy in Lisbon’s Campo Pequeno when he was brutally picked up and carried across the arena and crushed against a wall.
Trindade died of his injuries just 24 hours after the horrific incident.
Within seconds of the show beginning, the mighty animal hoisted Trindade up with its horns and rammed him against a wall, causing severe brain damage.
The incident has sparked a nationwide debate in Portugal, with animal rights activists calling for the ‘barbaric’ sport to be banned.
Others have made light of the young fighter’s death – posting online that he deserved his tragic fate as ‘karma’ for attempting to battle a bull.
In response, Alzira, Trindade’s mother, has written an open letter hitting back at those ‘applauding’ her son’s death.
The grieving woman revealed she was still waiting for the return of his body because he was an organ donor.
Addressing her message to Portugal’s environmentalist party People Animals Nature (PAN), Alzira wrote: ‘I want to thank you for all your applause, laughter, and rejoicing over my son’s death. Did you know him well enough to be happy about his death? Do you know if he liked animals?
‘Actually, YES! We’ve always had dogs and they’re part of our family. They slept with him, and when he came home, they laughed at him… animals know who the good people are!
‘My son belonged to a group of brothers who wear a jacket with honor and bravery. These groups never harmed a bull; they handled it skillfully.’
Extreme sports influencer famed for dare-devil stunts plunges 650ft to his death in the Dolomites hours after posting haunting last Instagram video
The clip showed Tonelli flashing a huge grin while carrying his bike on his shoulders as he passed a small cross marking the mountain’s summit.
The lifeless body of Andreas Tonelli, 48, was found early Wednesday in a ravine in the Vallunga area of Val Gardena, part of the Dolomites mountain range in Italy’s South Tyrol province
A mountain biker and extreme sports influencer plunged more than 600ft to his death from atop the Dolomites just hours after sharing a triumphant video to social media.
The lifeless body of Andreas Tonelli, 48, was found in a ravine in the Vallunga area of Val Gardena, part of the Dolomites mountain range in Italy‘s South Tyrol province in mid-July.
The discovery marked the culmination of a swift rescue effort which began after Tonelli’s concerned friends raised the alarm, telling emergency services that the daredevil had not returned from his excursion.
Less than two hours prior to the launch of the rescue, Tonelli had shared a video to his cohort of 127,000 social media followers in which he was standing atop the summit of Piz Duleda, a mountain peak measuring 9,543ft (2,909 metres) high.
The clip showed Tonelli flashing a huge grin while carrying his bike on his shoulders as he passed a small cross marking the mountain’s summit.
It is believed he suffered an accident or lost control of his bike while descending the mountain and fell some 650ft down the side of the peak, leaving him with fatal injuries.
A helicopter was dispatched within minutes of the alarm being raised and the team located Tonelli at the bottom of the ravine, but rescuers could not deploy into the harsh terrain to reach him in the middle of the night.
A search and rescue party reached Tonelli but found he had already succumbed to his injuries.
Haunting beach selfie taken moments before internet star was shot to death
Whyte posted this TikTok at the Long Branch beach, New Jersey, just hours before he was killed
A popular influencer posted a video enjoying himself at a beach in New Jersey just hours before he was tragically shot to death.
Chrystofer A. Whyte, 18, also known as @hi.imchrys on TikTok, was shot and killed at the Long Branch beach in New Jersey on the evening of June 12, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
That same day, Whyte, who has 105,000 followers on social media, posted a video of himself lounging on the sand and captioned it #longbranch.
He showed himself wearing pink swimming trunks, with a blue vape on his lap.
The Long Branch Police Department responded to reports of a shooting just before 9pm and discovered that Whyte had suffered a single gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two suspects were arrested with connection to the shooting – a juvenile, whose name wasn’t released, and a teen named Dwayne Exilus, 18.
Exilus was hit with a slew of second-degree charges relating to unlawful possession of a weapon. The juvenile faces murder charges in addition to possession of a weapon and hindering.
Authorities haven’t released a motive for Whyte’s death and it’s unclear what his relationship was to the suspects.
The TikToker’s friend, Jaiden Roche, told the local New Jersey Patch that he believed his friend’s death was related to a social media feud.
Roche told the outlet that kids from Linden were making fun of Whyte during a TikTok live.
‘I think this whole situation was about egos, back and forth online. Chrys is a very humble person, but the one thing he doesn’t tolerate is disrespect,’ he told the outlet.
Roche speculated that Whyte’s last TikTok at the beach was what led to his untimely death.
‘They [the suspects] saw his TikTok post and they ended up coming to the beach. They came to the beach knowing they would start problems,’ Roche said.
‘He had told these kids, let’s fight. I guess these kids had something more than a fight in mind.’
Final selfie of tragic German hiker
The body of Daniel Osterloh, 40, (pictured) was found in June down a ravine on the Cima Meghè, a mountain in Italy’s Lombardy region
This is the final photo of a German hiker who lost his life while trekking up an Italian mountain.
The body of Daniel Osterloh, 40, was found in June down a ravine on the Cima Meghè, a mountain in Italy’s Lombardy region.
He took the picture and sent it to his friend and family at 4pm on June 5 this year.
Later that evening, after he failed to check in with his friend he was hiking.
Following a search operation, his body was found.
Daniel was a passionate mountaineer and amateur athlete, who just weeks prior to his death had taken part in the Düsseldorf Half Marathon.
His body was taken back to Germany to be buried by his family.
Last picture taken by sporty Alps hiker
A smiling Braian Paulon de Andrade, 25, (pictured) was seen with a stunning backdrop behind him as he climbed up Zimnitz summit in Austria
This is the tragic last selfie taken by a student moments before he plunged down a 2,000ft ravine in the Austrian Alps during a Boxing Day hike.
A smiling Braian Paulon de Andrade, 25, was seen with a stunning backdrop behind him as he climbed up Zimnitz summit in Austria.
He was reported missing in Bad Ischl, a spa town near the city of Salzburg on December 26 2021.
Following a search carried out by a team of 20, two choppers, a drone and search dogs, the Brazilian man’s body was found.
He is believed to have slipped and fallen to his death while climbing up the 5,725ft mountain.
Braian posted a selfie at just under 2,000ft.
He had arrived in Austria just a few weeks prior as a student. His body was repatriated back to Brazil
Teachers and student seen walking dog before being killed near beach
This is the moment three women were filmed walking along a tourist beach with a dog shortly before they disappeared and were later found dead with stab wounds
This is the moment three women were filmed walking along a tourist beach with a white dog shortly before they disappeared and were later found dead with stab wounds.
The incident happened in Ilheus, in the south of Bahia state, Brazil, after they were last seen on Praia dos Milionarios on the evening of August 15.
Their bodies were discovered the following afternoon in a nearby wooded area.
Security camera footage shows teachers Alexsandra Oliveira Suzart, 45, and Maria Helena do Nascimento Bastos, 41, together with Maria Helena’s daughter, student Mariana Bastos da Silva, 20, walking barefoot on the sand near beach huts as joggers pass them by.
They are seen chatting and strolling with the dog before moving out of frame.
The trio were neighbours and lived in a condominium about 200 metres (650 feet) from the beach and had set out from their homes to take the dog, which belonged to Mariana, for a walk.
The next day, search teams found the bodies of the three women with knife wounds in a thicket close to the seafront.
The dog was still alive, tied to a coconut tree nearby.
