The dream became a deadly obsession: Joao Pimenta da Silva, a resident of Ipatinga, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, dreamed that there was gold under his house. A spirit had appeared to him at night to let him know. Convinced, Da Silva dug a well in the kitchen of his house, a well so deep that it was 40 meters deep. A pit that would end his life.
“Joao spent more than a year digging the well and hired several people to do the digging. Initially, he paid 70 Brazilian reals (about 13 euros) per day when the hole was shallow, but, as the depth increased, the costs were also increasing,” a neighbor, Arnaldo Da Silva, told Brazilian media.
In recent days, Da Silva’s obsession had grown, to the point of offering 495 reais (92 euros) to anyone who agreed to enter the hole and remove dirt. Da Silva had come across a large rock that he could not move “and there were rumors that he was considering using dynamite.”
According to the G1 news site, “on one of the many times that the man looked into the hole to look for some sign of that precious metal, he lost his balance and fell.” The strong impact “caused his immediate death.”
Antônio Wilson Costa, a friend who was helping Pimenta da Silva, witnessed the fall. According to him, the victim’s seat came loose during the accident. “When he got to the top, the swing started to slide and he got caught in the rope by his arm. I tried to hold him, but alone, there was no way to call for help.”
When firefighters finally arrived, they could only remove his body. Pimenta Da Silva’s body exhibited “multiple trauma, open fractures in both legs, hip fracture, laceration in the abdomen and trunk, as well as severe head trauma.”
One of the firefighters who arrived at Pimenta da Silva’s home told O Estado de Sao Paulo that the victim probably had experience in excavations because, despite the “archaic” and “homemade” equipment he used, the tunnel showed a striking “perfection.” “in its vertical cut.
