Who was Julia Hennessy? 22-year-old influencer dead, husband critical after crash during road trip
A social media sensation has tragically died at age 22 in a motorbike crash after an ominous final post to her more than 330,000 followers online.
Brazilian influencer Julia Hennessy Cayuela was on a road trip with her husband Daniel Cayuela on July 15 when the pair met with an accident in Sao Jose dos Pinhais outside Sao Paulo, Brazil. The raven-haired beauty was airlifted to a hospital in the nearby city of Parana in critical condition and passed away shortly after arrival due to cardiac arrest. Her entrepreneur husband Daniel, who also has over 110,000 Instagram followers, also sustained critical injuries and remains in intensive care, Brazilian outlet O Tempo reported.
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“Life is short, let’s be crazy — me, you, god, and the road. Your dreams are mine," Julia declared on Instagram shortly before the tragedy. Speaking to G1, her stepfather Jeronimo Onofre recalled the hospital breaking the news to them. "We were at our house, me and my wife, Julia's mother, when the hospital called with the news. We got a flight and, at midnight, we were in Curitiba. She died around 1:00 am," he said.
Daniel, who underwent shoulder surgery, was reportedly unaware of his wife's passing. Onofre said he and other family members told him about it when he regained consciousness. "He didn't know. We decided to tell him together, as a family. Daniel is in a state of shock, crying a lot, not believing what happened, they were very united and in love," Onofre explained to G1. "We are desolate, in shock, a very difficult time," he added. "We are suffering."
The Cayuelas were married for four years and often treated social media fans by documenting their motorcycle adventures. Their final post on both of their respective accounts features them in helmets while posing in front of an oversized yellow sign for the town of Capao Bonito.
"First stop #capaobonito 800km rounds in style and in the peace of Jesus always! Tomorrow to descend the serpent and graceful mountain range, we will sleep in Pomerode," Daniel wrote about the first leg of their trip, while Julia ominously wrote, "Life is short, let's be crazy 🛣 🚀 Me, You, God and the road! Your dreams are mine too @danielcayuela."
One of Julia's fans deemed the post as some sort of a premonition. “From the phrase she put in that photo, it looked like she knew she was going to pass away,” they wrote, per O Tempo’s English translation. “In videos, Julia even stated that the roads along which the couple took the trip were quite winding and that she got nauseated because of the curves in the path. In some moments of the recordings, it is possible to see that there was a lot of fog on the way.”
Speaking to local media, the Federal Highway Police of Parana and Ecovia said they suspect a truck was crossing the BR-277 road in Sao Jose dos Pinhais when the Cayuelas T-boned into the side of it, the New York Post reported. On July 17, Julia was buried in the city of Belo Horizonte in the couple’s native state of Minas Gerais.
Her funeral was attended by hundreds of fans and loved ones, as seen in video footage captured by multiple local outlets.