What we know about Juliana Marins’ death on Mount Rinjani
ArchiveFirst published July 3, 2025. It may not reflect later developments.
Juliana Marins, a 26-year-old Brazilian backpacker, fell from a trail on Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani in June 2025. Rescuers reached her body four days later, and her family has since accused authorities of responding too slowly.
The fall
Marins had been backpacking through Thailand and Vietnam before arriving on the Indonesian island of Lombok, the BBC reported. Early on the morning of Saturday, June 21, she was climbing Mount Rinjani with five friends and a guide when she fell from what authorities described as “a cliff that surrounds the trail next to the volcano’s crater.”
One member of the group told Brazilian television that the trail was slippery, the climb was “very hard” and visibility was poor. People reported that the fall happened near an area known as Cemara Nunggal, on the route to the summit.
Four days on the mountain
Marins survived the initial fall. Rescuers reported hearing her calls for help that Saturday, and drone footage and videos filmed by other hikers, later broadcast by Brazilian media, appeared to show her alive and moving in loose gray soil far below the path.
Reaching her proved extremely difficult. According to the BBC, rescuers descended about 300 meters (984 feet) to where they believed she was but could not find her, and she did not answer their calls. By Sunday, drone footage showed she was no longer in the same place, and thick fog interfered with a thermal drone. On Monday, she was spotted again, motionless, after apparently sliding farther down.
On Tuesday, June 24, rescuers finally reached her body after descending roughly 600 meters into a ravine. Bad weather ruled out a helicopter, and the body was lifted out on Wednesday in a retrieval that took about six hours, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency told The Jakarta Post. About 50 people took part in the operation.
“With great sadness, we inform you that she did not survive,” her family wrote on social media.
Her family’s criticism
The family accused the rescue team of negligence. “Juliana would still be alive if the team had gotten to her within the estimated time of 7 hours,” they wrote on an Instagram account that had gathered more than a million followers. “Juliana deserved so much more! Now we are going after justice for her.”
The head of Indonesia’s rescue agency, Mohammad Syafii, said he had met with the family to explain the conditions crews faced. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said he received the news of her death “with great sadness.”
Two autopsies, two timelines
An initial autopsy was carried out in Bali. After her body was returned to Brazil, forensic experts at the Afrânio Peixoto Institute of Legal Medicine in Rio de Janeiro performed a second examination. They told reporters in July that Marins died of multiple traumatic injuries, including internal bleeding, and estimated that she may have lived for about 32 hours after her first fall, dying around midday on June 22 local time, according to BBC News Brasil. They estimated that she survived about 15 minutes after a final fall. The Indonesian autopsy had produced a different estimate.
Her sister, Mariana Marins, criticized the fact that Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, Basarnas, was not called until 8:30 a.m. that Saturday, and said the equipment used was not adequate.
The message to her mother
Brazilian program Fantástico later published messages Marins had sent her mother at the start of her trip, not during the climb itself, People reported. “Mami, I love you so much,” she wrote. “I’m not afraid of much,” she added, thanking her family for “all the support, care and affection. That is what makes me not afraid.”
Background: a popular and dangerous climb
At 3,726 meters (about 12,224 feet), Rinjani is Indonesia’s second-tallest volcano and draws thousands of visitors every year, many of them hikers who climb for its panoramic views. Several climbers have died on its slopes in recent years, including a Malaysian tourist in May 2025, according to Reuters reporting cited by the BBC. Marins’ family also questioned why the trail stayed open after she fell. Her case drew national attention in Brazil and renewed questions about how quickly help can reach injured climbers on remote volcanic terrain, where fog and steep, loose ground can halt rescues for hours at a time.
Sources
- BBC News – June 24, 2025
- The Jakarta Post – June 26, 2025
- People – July 1, 2025
- BBC News Brasil (Brazilian autopsy, in Portuguese) – July 11, 2025
- g1 (in Portuguese) – July 11, 2025
