Brazilian Taylor Swift Fan Died of Heat Exhaustion, Forensic Report Says

The cause of death of Taylor Swift fan, who died before her Eras Tour performance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in November, has been determined.

Ana Clara Benevides Machado died of heat exhaustion, according to an official forensic report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

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The 23-year-old fan died on November 17 while preparing to attend Swift’s concert at the Estadio Nilton Santos. She was unwell at the Rio event and an ambulance arrived at the scene before she was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died, event organizer Time for Fun announced on X (formerly Twitter).

After Benevides Machado’s death, Swift, 34, invited the Benevides family to meet her at a separate fashion show, covered their travel expenses and made a donation to her parents, PEOPLE confirms.

Ana Clara Benevides Machado.

Ana Benevides/ Instagram

Taylor Swift says she is ‘broken’ after a fan died just before her Brazil Eras tour

The “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” singer posted a handwritten note on her Instagram Story saying she was “heartbroken” by the tragedy.

“I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but I’m heartbroken to say that we lost a fan tonight before my performance,” Swift began her statement on social media.

“I can’t even tell you how devastated I was,” she continued. “I have very little information other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and too young.”

Swift added that she would not be able to talk about the fan’s death during her performances because of the “sadness” she felt.

“I won’t be able to talk about this from the stage because I feel overwhelmed with grief when I even try to talk about it,” she wrote. “I want to say that I feel this loss deeply now and my heart goes out to my family and friends.”

“This is the last thing I thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil,” Swift concluded her heartfelt message.

The pop star invited Benevides Machado’s loved ones, including her father, Weiny, to her final Brazilian tour stop in São Paulo on Nov. 26, a source close to Swift previously told PEOPLE.

The late fan’s family watched the performer from what appeared to be a VIP tent, and fans caught him clip divided by X shown.

The group of five wore the same Benevides Machado T-shirts during the concert as they did when they met Swift and posed for a photo with her beforehand. (Several Swift fan accounts shared the photo on X.)

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Taylor Swift.

John Shearer/TAS23/Getty

Family of Taylor Swift fan who died before Rio concert attends singer’s last show in Brazil

After his daughter’s death, Weiny (53) told a Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo“I lost my only daughter, a happy and intelligent girl.”

“She was supposed to major in psychology next April, saving money,” Weiny said. “I have no words to express my pain. She left home to fulfill a dream and came back dead.”

According to Folha de S. Paulofans at Swift’s Nov. 19 show in Rio claimed they weren’t given water while waiting in line for the concert even though the singer postponed her Nov. 18 Rio show due to extreme heat.

In the same interview, Weiny said he wanted clarification on whether fans were allowed to bring water into Nilton Santos Stadium on the day of Benevides Machado’s death. (Temperatures reached 102 degrees on Nov. 17, according to PBS.org.)

“I want to know if it is true that they were forbidden to bring water and that they neglected to provide assistance,” he told the newspaper.

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Time for Fun, the company that organized Swift’s concerts in Brazil – and revealed Benevides Machado’s death – is now under investigation.

NBC News reported that Rio de Janeiro’s civil police, consumer delegation department, is investigating an alleged “crime endangering life or health” committed by the company.

Organizers of the event are expected to be called to testify, and authorities have begun taking additional steps “to investigate the facts,” the release said.

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Source: HIS Education