A British tourist plummeted to her death from her ninth-floor hotel window after appearing to be heavily intoxicated on a night out.
University student Zoe Robinson, 21, suffered multiple injuries after she fell after a night out clubbing with new friends, before which they had been to see an Olympic football match, her inquest heard.
She had just enjoyed her first day in Morro de Sao Paulo in Bahia, after two weeks volunteering 500km away in Juazeiro, near Rio de Janiero.
Zoe joined some friends to watch the Olympic football match between Nigeria and Denmark at the Fonta Nova Arena, before going to a night club.
Zoe Robinson (pictured) plummeted to her death from her ninth-floor hotel window after appearing to be heavily intoxicated on a night out, an inquest heard
Zoe, from Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, suffered multiple injuries after she fell after a night out clubbing with new friends in Morro de Sao Paulo in Bahia
An inquest into Zoe’s death heard she appeared very drunk and had taken a taxi back to the hotel where, a few hours later, she fell from the ninth-floor window.
Tragic Zoe, from Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, died immediately from ‘multiple injuries and bruising’ following the fall at 5.16am on Sunday, August 14, 2016.
Friends told the inquest Zoe was the only one in the group to drink a large amount of alcohol and that her speech was not coherent when she returned to the hotel.
Fellow volunteer Jouao Gonzaga, who had met Zoe two weeks earlier said in a statement: ‘Zoe was the only one of us to drink alcohol in excess that night.
‘She went off to the toilet and vomited and had to get a taxi back to the hotel. I wasn’t with her when she went back, so I don’t know what state she was in.
‘But it’s possible that she might have gone to the window in her room to vomit, and then lost her balance and fell.’
However, a toxicology report carried out locally in Brazil by Dr Felisberto Daltro was unable to detect any alcohol or drugs in Zoe’s system.
The inquest heard that Zoe and five others from her group had checked in to the Bahia de Sol hotel in Morro Sao de Paolo at around 2.30pm on Saturday, August 13 last year.
The group went to watch the match, had lunch at a shopping centre in Pellerino, before they returned to the hotel to get ready for their night out.
Zoe and her friends then left the hotel at around 10.20pm to go to Tarantino Bar.
The inquest was told that Aston University student Zoe rarely consumed alcohol.
But engineer Khaled Ibrahim, another volunteer, said that he saw Zoe become very drunk.
He said: ‘I don’t drink myself because of my religion, but I saw her consuming alcoholic beverages and becoming drunk.
‘I was not with her when she returned to the hotel, so I can’t say what she was like then.’
The inquest heard that Zoe and five others from her group had checked in to the Bahia de Sol hotel
He described Zoe was a ‘good, smiley person’, who was always thoughtful of others.
In the early hours of Sunday, August 14, Zoe returned to Apartment 901 at the Bahia de Sol hotel, where she reportedly showered, got changed and went to sleep.
But at approximately 5.16am, taxi driver Luiz de Salva, who was parked across the street, said he heard the sound of a window opening, and ‘something loud’ falling.
He said: ‘I looked up at the hotel window but nobody seemed to have seen what happened. I believe I was the first person to see.
‘As soon as I realised it was a woman’s body, I alerted hotel staff.’
Chinese student Li Xinjian, who was also out with Zoe that night, was woken to identify Zoe’s body – but said she ‘could not possibly say’ what had caused the fall.
Chief of Police Dejane de Almidea attended the hotel shortly after 5.30am, and confirmed Zoe dead at the scene.
An autopsy carried out by forensic expert Dr Alexandro Barros suggested Zoe died from extensive external and internal injuries and bruising, including ruptured heart and spleen.
Assistant Coroner Dr Peter Harrowing, at Avon Coroners Court, recorded a narrative conclusion.
He said: ‘I have heard that on August 13, Zoe had drunk to excess and vomited. But I have also heard that alcohol was not detected in her system from the toxicology report.
‘On balance of probability, I am unable to reach a conclusion as to the cause of her death in relation to alcohol consumption.
‘I record a narrative conclusion, that Zoe died from multiple injuries after falling from a ninth-floor window.’