Suicide: South African Woman Jumped To Her Death From 148th Floor Of Burj Khalifa In Dubai After Split With Wealthy Boyfriend
A South African woman jumped to her death in Dubai 1,640 feet from the world’s tallest building after splitting with her wealthy boyfriend last November, according to Mirror.
Laura Vanessa Nunes, 39, of South Africa had split from a rocky relationship with her wealthy boyfriend and couldn’t cope with knowing that the relationship was over for good. While at Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world’s tallest building, she jumped from the 148th floor to her death.
Distraught woman leaps to death from world’s tallest building after love split http://t.co/5idzXnLN3a pic.twitter.com/vUApgC4cVy
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) May 18, 2015
Now six months later, Nunes’ mother, Leona Sykes, travelled to Dubai to seek answers in her daughter’s death. She asked police officials to see footage of the day her daughter committed suicide, which was captured from the camera located on the building’s deck, reports Daily Mail.
In the footage, it shows Nunes at the deck, first slipping her head through a gap and looking down. She quickly jolts back as if she was terrified and had second thoughts. However, she overcame her fears and finally jumped to her death moments later.
“I think she got a fright when she looked down. She was a panicky, terrified young woman,” Sykes said.
“She walked back to the pane of glass, turned around and looked up, maybe to get strength or to make a prayer.”
“Then she put her head out, tilted her body and slipped through. And nobody noticed.”
Nunes’ body was later found on the third floor, which was swamped with tourists at the time.
Her mother claims that “She was besotted with him [Nunes’ boyfriend]. But he didn’t love her as much as she loved him.” The loss of her relationship drove her to take her own life in lieu of living without the man she loved.
Since the woman committed suicide, a new rail had been installed on the balconies to prevent anyone from being able to jump from the building.
However, Nunes mother claims something like that should have taken place years earlier because before Nunes jumped to her death, an Indian man also comittted suicide by jumping from the 147th floor of the Burj Khalifa in 2011.
“It’s horrifying,” Sykes said.
“My daughter unfortunately wanted to kill herself. But it should not have been possible for someone to do that. How can you have a top tourist attraction where that’s possible?”
Sykes says that when she sought out answers from Burj Khalifa, no one was willing to discuss the dangers of their decks.
“I sent messages on their website. My ex-husband phoned and they weren’t prepared to speak to him.”
Nunes met her boyfriend in 2011, and messages from Whatsapp concluded that their were troubled in their relationship.
Her mother believes that there is more to her suicide as Nunes’ phone was recovered with its SIM card missing. The only information they have is based off of Nunes’ Whatsapp account.
[Image courtes of Getty Images]
