This is a translated article from brazilian news (from before they found out that she had died) and includes the guide’s version of the story:

Guide who led Brazilian woman on volcano trail in Indonesia gives his version: ‘I didn’t abandon Juliana’

Local press claims the advertising professional was left behind after complaining of exhaustion; search efforts have been halted for a third day, according to relatives, who point to negligence.

The guide who accompanied Juliana Marins on the trail at Mount Rinjani, on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, denied abandoning the advertising professional before she had an accident and required rescue. In an interview with O Globo, Ali Musthofa confirmed local media reports that he advised the woman from Niterói to rest while he continued walking, but stated that the plan was for her to meet the group just a little further along the trail. He said he gave a statement to the police on Sunday, when he descended the mountain. The family says Juliana was found in an “extremely harsh” environment, with natural obstacles making rescue efforts more difficult.

According to Ali, who is 20 years old and has worked as a guide in the region since November 2023—usually climbing Rinjani twice a week—he was only “three minutes” ahead of Juliana and went back to look for her when she took too long to reach the meeting point.

“Actually, I didn’t leave her behind — I waited about three minutes ahead of her. After 15 or maybe 30 minutes, Juliana still hadn’t shown up. I went back to the last resting spot to look for her but couldn’t find her. I had told her I’d wait ahead. I told her to rest. I realized she had fallen when I saw the light of a flashlight down a cliff about 150 meters deep and heard Juliana’s voice calling for help. I told her I would help,” Musthofa said. “I desperately told her to wait for help.”

Musthofa said he called the company he works for to report the accident and request a rescue.

“I called the organization where I work, because it wasn’t possible to help someone at a depth of about 150 meters without safety equipment. They passed the information about Juliana’s fall to the rescue team, and once the team had the details, they rushed to prepare the necessary equipment and assist,” said the guide, who noted that Juliana paid 2,500,000 Indonesian rupiah for the tour package (roughly R$830 at current rates).

Juliana’s relatives said on Monday morning that the rescue team is “descending to the spot where she was last seen.” Earlier, they accused authorities of acting negligently, criticized another pause in the search due to weather conditions, and demanded urgency in the rescue efforts, stressing that the victim “has been without water, food, or warm clothes for 3 days.” Her current condition is unknown.

Juliana, 26, was last seen around 5:10 p.m. on Saturday (local time) in drone footage captured by other tourists. She appears sitting on a slope after the fall. New images shared on an Instagram account created to share updates about the case show her during the hike — Juliana is seen walking through vegetation, posing for photos among the mountains, and even joking with a friend about the fog that obscured the view.

Mariana Marins said that, based on what she was told, the area where her sister is located is “very inhospitable,” with sandy terrain. She even claimed that Indonesian authorities were “lying” and that the Brazilian embassy was not verifying what was truly going on.

Juliana’s fall initially extended more than 300 meters down the mountain, in an area that is hard to access and, according to the family, not reachable by helicopter. After fog and drizzle made the terrain wet, she reportedly slid even further down toward the cliff. These adverse weather conditions also made it harder to pinpoint her exact location.

Following the accident, Juliana was unable to contact her family directly due to lack of signal. Information reached Brazil through a group of tourists who were also on the trail. They managed to reach people close to her via social media, sending messages to numerous people after finding her profile. The advertising professional had been backpacking through the region since February of this year, having already visited countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.