On 16 November 2014, Laura Vanessa Nunes died following a fall of approximately 500 metres from the At the Top SKY observation deck on the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa to a terrace outside Amal Restaurant on the third floor of the Armani Hotel. The restaurant was closed at the time.
Scarcely a month earlier, on 14 October 2014, the observation deck was inaugurated and the following day officially opened to the public,
Her death was recorded as suicide. This site documents Laura’s suicide at the Burj Khalifa, the cover-up of her death by Dubai authorities, and subsequent attempts to dispute the location of her death, and where she had been staying at the time of her death.
Following Laura’s death, modifications were made to the observation deck at the request of the Dubai Police and the original architectural gaps in the glass security panels intended for photography were subsequently made smaller. Further modifications have been made more recently.
Dubai Police said she fell from her 14th floor apartment at the Jumeirah Lake Towers. The Medical Forensic Report states that her body was found on the balcony of the third floor of the Burj Khalifa.There is a distance of 24.6 kilometres between the Burj Khalifa and Jumeirah Lake Towers.
Featured Image: At the Top SKY observation deck on the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa as it appeared at the time of Laura Vanessa Nunes’ death on 16 November 2014.
This website is dedicated to my daughter Laura.
The Medical Forensic Report
The Medical Forensic Report issued in Dubai confirms the date and location of the incident, as recorded at the time.
The report records: “Upon the request of senior prosecutor Ahmed Ibrahim Al Hammadi, as included in the letter issued by the action chief of Bur Dubai Police Station under No. 240857/34/2/3151 dated 17/11/2014, I, the expert, Dr. Hazem Mitwali Sharif, the coroner of Dubai Police, carried out the external anatomic examination on the body of the deceased.”
The report further records that the coroner attended the scene following a call from the Dubai Police Operations Office and observed the deceased at a location identified as the Burj Khalifa on 16 November 2014.
Under “Circumstances” the Report states: “Having received the phone call from Operations Office at Dubai Police, I moved to the balcony of the third floor of Burj Khalifa on 16/11/2014, to find out that her body was lying on the right side…”
In July 2026, and in the absence of any official confirmation from Dubai, the Medical Forensic Report was authenticated by the High Court of South Africa. An extra layer of evidence. This step was made necessary after Wikipedia editors repeatedly suggested the report could be a forgery – a standard of proof that Dubai’s official denial has never been required to meet.
Related Resources
News of Laura’s Death
On the afternoon of 18 November 2014, my mobile phone rang.
“It’s Laura. She fell to her death from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa. She had a meal at a restaurant, left her purse on the table, moved to a sliding door, opened it, and walked out. The police contacted me as they found my name and telephone number on a piece of paper in her passport. The Portuguese authorities are waiting for Dubai to furnish them with the official report of her death. They should complete their investigations within a week.”
For two days before the call, Luis Camara, Deputy Head of Mission and Consul from the Embassy of Portugal in Abu Dhabi, had been in contact with various governmental departments and colleagues in Portugal, trying to find the contact details of Laura’s relatives, and me.
The Portuguese embassy in Abu Dhabi represents the Portuguese embassy in the Middle East. There is no Portuguese representation in Dubai.
An email sent by Luis Camara on 17 November at 10:37 AM.
“We were contacted this morning by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which informed us that the national citizen LAURA VANESSA NUNES, born in South Africa on 01.07.1976, committed suicide in Dubai, having jumped from the 38th floor of a hotel.
We will meet with the CID in order to better understand what happened.
I would be grateful if her family could be contacted to determine what to do with her body and personal property.”
At 14:22 PM, that same day, a second email was sent.
“The death of the national citizen LAURA VANESSA NUNES is under investigation by the CID, although suicide is a probable cause, and may take one week. She just left a handbag with some personal property. She committed suicide by throwing herself from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, where there are restaurants with a panoramic terrace. The CID does not have any record of her stay in a hotel.
We will meet with the CID in order to better understand what happened.”
In three hours and forty-five minutes, the location had changed – from the 38th floor of a hotel to the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa.
I later found out that after Laura’s death, her handbag had been retrieved from the courtesy desk on the ground floor of the Burj Khalifa by the CID. Inside was her South African passport, not her Portuguese passport, that contained my contact details, signed by Laura. She wanted me to be contacted after her death.
Why did the Dubai Police send the Portuguese authorities on a search for Laura’s next of kin when they had my contact details inside her South African passport all along?
There would have been no entry visa stamp in her South African passport. Laura always used her Portuguese passport when travelling in the Middle East to save on visa fees. She had entered Dubai from Qatar on 18 October 2014 on her Portuguese passport.
Inside her handbag, Dubai Police also found invoices from the Abidos Hotel Dubailand. They visited the hotel and removed her Portuguese passport and two debit cards. They also removed the invoices from her handbag, leaving behind two empty white Abidos Hotel Apartment envelopes and a gold bill folder bearing the hotel logo.
So before Luis Camara sent his first email at 10:37 AM on 17 November, Dubai Police already knew exactly where Laura had been staying. And yet his first email states: “The CID does not have any record of her stay in a hotel.”
I am so thankful that they forgot to remove the envelopes and bill folder. Even though there was another piece of evidence in her handbag, at the time I thought the envelopes and bill folder were more relevant in finding where Laura had been staying in Dubai.
Once I had established contact with Luis Camara, I asked him if he could try to find out where Laura had been staying in Dubai. I wanted to hold something she had touched. To press my face into one of her abayas and smell her. Anything. Her computer and phone might hold answers. And I was worried about her cats. She had posted photographs of them on Facebook in the months before her death. They could be in her apartment, dying of thirst and starvation.
I sent him an email: “Attached are some images of her and where she might have been staying in Dubai. Will it be possible for CID Dubai to put a notice in the newspapers asking people to come forward if they knew her. Maybe there could be a better understanding of why she took her life.”
I attached photographs of Laura dressed in an abaya. “Laura also used to wear Arab clothes” – and photographs of the apartment where she had lived in Dubai in 2012.
Luis forwarded the email to the CID in Dubai.
My request was ignored. I was denied some sort of comfort, as small as it was.
I contacted the Burj Khalifa. I made contact with the Armani hotel. I wanted to see the footage of Laura on the observation deck before she died. I wanted to make sure that it was her. There was a blanket of silence.
Two weeks later, the conclusion of the police investigation into Laura’s death was suicide. I had more questions that Luis Camara couldn’t answer, so I started to communicate directly with CID Police.
Why were there two versions of the location of her death?
And the information that the person had given me about Laura’s death did not make sense. There was no restaurant on the 148th floor. There were no sliding doors from where she could have walked out to her death.
I didn’t know what to believe. Had she been murdered?
I couldn’t understand how Laura could have fallen to her death from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa. How could she? How could she slip through one of the open gaps between the two large panes of glass? It shouldn’t have been possible. Surely they were too small? Where was security? Why didn’t anyone notice? Why didn’t anyone stop her?
Her death had not been covered by the media in Dubai. Why not? Was she still alive?
“We were contacted this morning by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which informed us that the national citizen LAURA VANESSA NUNES, born in South Africa on 01.07.1976, committed suicide in Dubai, having jumped from the 38th floor of a hotel.”
The first 38 floors of the Burj Khalifa are occupied by the Armani hotel and in 2014, on the 38th floor, there were five Signature Suites. Today the information is different. The five suites are located between the 38th and 39th floor.
If this was the correct version, had she been pushed, or had she jumped?
After a lot of communication with the CID police and a woman from the Victims Support Program of the Dubai Police an inspector from the CID phoned me and during our conversation, he told me that Laura’s body had been found outside the Amal Restaurant on the third floor of the Burj Khalifa. When I asked him where Laura had been staying, he wouldn’t tell me. When I asked him once again, “Where was my daughter staying?” he became very irritable. I requested the footage of Laura from the Burj Khalifa. He said that I should go to Dubai to see for myself. And then he refused to answer any more questions.
I had to see the footage as I could not live with the uncertainty of how she had died, and if she had died. I would go crazy. Had she fallen from the 38th floor or the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa? Which Signature Suite was directly above the Amal restaurant? Had Laura been with someone in this suite? Had there been a heated argument? Who had been the registered occupant of the suite?
On 9 January 2015, two days after I received Laura’s handbag, and on her iPhone which was not password protected, I found the identity and contact details of the mysterious Emirati whom she had met, I believe, at the end of 2009, at the Jumeirah Madinat where she had been working at the time. Youssef*, not his real name, a powerful and wealthy local Emirati businessman who had connections all the way to the upper echelons of United Arab Emirates royalty. I sent him an email, attaching two photographs of Laura. “What happened to my daughter on 16 November?”
The last message on her iPhone on the day she died, at 3:43:56 PM, Dubai time, was from Youssef. “Yes.”
There is no suggestion that Youssef was responsible for Laura’s death. Her love for him was obsessive, and she was not strong enough to break free.
There was a Blackberry phone in one of the plastic bags in her handbag. I only realised about a year later that the contents in the plastic bags were on her when she fell to her death. The back of the Blackberry was damaged and there was no battery. The SIM card was missing. In another plastic bag was an ankle bracelet, beads strung together on a piece of shirring elastic. The elastic had snapped and there were loose beads in the plastic bag alongside what remained of the bracelet. The tiny beads were retrieved. What happened to the SIM card and battery?
I also found the empty Abidos Hotel envelopes and bill folder and I followed the trail, just as the CID Police had done, and after a minor battle which is a story in itself, I eventually retrieved Laura’s luggage.
I was never meant to find where she had been staying.
Once Laura’s luggage had been sent to me I made arrangements to take her ashes to Cape Town and on 28 February 2015, we held a small memorial service for Laura on the beach in Hout Bay, South Africa, her ashes in a round silver metal container positioned on the sand in the middle of the circle we had formed. It was covered with the plain abaya that she wore most of the time. On top of it was her hanging prayer mat and prayer beads. I was wearing her Shiva Shakti pendant around my neck.
Afterward, we took her out to sea, and when it was my turn, I lay her ashes, handful by handful, gently on the surface of the water. She was finally free.
I booked a ticket to visit Dubai on 13 March and a ticket for the At the Top Sky observation deck. 16 March, 18:45. It would be the same time she died, four months after her death.
As irrational as it was, I had to be there. I had to stand where Laura had been standing. She had been all alone when she died.
I was thinking of wearing one of Laura’s abayas and taking a red rose to place on the floor, but I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I had read enough articles about how people would disappear in Dubai, or how they would be detained on minor or trumped-up charges. I needed to see the footage, and if it was Laura, I needed to see how she had been acting before she took that final step to her death, and I needed to see from which floor she fell.
I chose to stay at the hotel where Laura had been living and requested Room 309, her room for the last month of her life. It was not available. Instead, I was given Room 909, six stories above her room.
I informed the CID Police that I would be visiting Dubai, and they gave me a report number registered at Bur Dubai Police station.
“Please use this report no… during your visit to UAE.”
I wanted to follow in Laura’s footsteps in Dubai. What had she found so alluring about this small country in the desert? And maybe find the apartment block in the Dubai Marina where she lived for most of 2012.
I was also hoping to arrange a meeting with Youssef* and sent him an email with my arrival and departure dates. Upon arrival I contacted him and he replied that he was out of the country but if I was still in Dubai upon his return we could definitely meet. He would only be returning a few days after I left Dubai.
Visit to Dubai and the CCTV Footage
16 March 2015
As I was waiting on the ground floor of the Burj Khalifa, I was befriended by an Algerian businessman in transit from a visit to the Far East. He accompanied me to the deck and witnessed my conversation with a Kenyan security officer named Vincent who said he had heard of Laura’s suicide but hadn’t been working at the Burj Khalifa at the time of her death. The Algerian also heard my conversation with a hostile security supervisor on the ground floor of the Burj Khalifa when I asked if I could see the footage of Laura on the observation deck. He told me that the CCTV footage had been given to the Dubai Police.
Inadvertently I pressed record on my phone, the conversation captured.
The following morning, I sent an email to one of my sons back in South Africa.
“I’m okay. Nothing happened last night. Strange noises were coming from outside my room during the night. I am feeling very nervous.
I fear that my trip to the CID at the Bur Dubai Police Station will be a waste of time, but I have to go there.”
I didn’t think that I would be allowed to watch the footage. I also mentioned that I found the security presence at the Burj Khalifa slightly menacing. Still feeling unsettled and thinking that I could disappear and no one would know about her death or that I had disappeared, I sent emails to 7daysindubai and Al Jazeera. My family back in South Africa would not be able to help.
At least if something happened to me, hopefully, one of the agencies would pick up Laura’s story.
Subject: Burj Khalifa’s Best Kept Secret.
“Message:
On 16 November 2014 my daughter, a Portuguese national that entered Dubai on a tourist visa fell to her death from the At the Top Sky observation deck on the 148th floor. the Burj Khalifa ignored my requests to see the footage of this tragedy and last, on the 4 month anniversary of her death, I went to the deck at the same time she would have been there, as she had died alone, and to try to find answers to my questions. How could she have fallen from the tallest tower in the world? I asked a security supervisor on my way out if I could see the footage. He said that it was with the police. The police had told me ‘you come you see’, and that the Burj Khalifa would let me see the footage if I visited Dubai from South Africa. I will be going to the Bur Dubai police station today, the CID division. I have not received the full investigative report and the blood tests were outstanding. The police were still investigating her death as recently as 11 February. I am at the Abidos Hotel, Dubailand.”
I had a meeting with a Lieutenant Colonel at the Bur Dubai police station. Also present was an elderly Emirati and a member of the Dubai Police Victims Support Program. During our discussion, the Lieutenant Colonel told me that at the request of the Dubai Police, the open gaps on the observation deck at the Burj Khalifa had subsequently been made smaller. At the end of our meeting, I was taken to a smaller office by an inspector and accompanied by the member of the Victims Support Program, I was shown the CCTV footage of Laura standing on the deck of the 148th floor, minutes before her death.
It was so quick that I had to watch it again. And again.
I finally understood.
I am deeply grateful to those who made it possible for me to view the footage. As horrifying as it was to watch, they were courteous and respectful throughout. If I had not seen the footage I would still be wondering what had really happened to Laura.
On the day before I returned to South Africa, I stood outside the Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa in the background, holding two makeshift placards, my solo, silent protest against the Government of Dubai, wearing one of Laura’s dresses with her Shiva Shakti pendant around my neck…
Media Coverage of the Suicide at the Burj Khalifa
Media reporting on Laura’s death has varied in both detail and accuracy. The dedicated section of this site includes:
From one of the journalists that I had been in contact with after Laura’s death had been published by Rob Davies of the Daily Mail:
“And I can tell you what will happen when you go and question the staff from the Abidos Hotel. They will lie to you – you must understand that they are living in Dubai and people just disappear if they speak up against the government. And the same will apply to Jumeirah Lakes Towers. They will back the lies of the police because they are scared. Plus this building has often been used to report deaths by suicide.”
Suicide at the Burj Khalifa – the Book
A review:
A hybrid work combining personal memoir, investigative narrative, and documentary evidence to recount the death of Laura Vanessa Nunes and the subsequent search for truth.
Part Memoir: It serves as an intimate look into Laura’s life, her vulnerabilities, her complex psychological struggles, and her fraught relationship with her mother. It heavily details her devastating emotional collapse, which was catalysed by an unrequited, obsessive love with a wealthy Emirati businessman.
Part Investigative Narrative: The text meticulously traces the timeline leading up to Laura’s death and explicitly examines the tightly interwoven relationship between corporate interests (such as the developer Emaar Properties), law enforcement, and political authority. It chronicles Sykes’ journey to work alongside investigative journalists to expose the incident to the international press despite a wall of silence.
Part Documentary Record: The book includes a 61-page appendix of documented evidence. This section presents emails, text messages retrieved from Laura’s devices, and official consular records to expose false statements, contradictions, and disinformation campaigns attributed to the Dubai authorities.
The full narrative, documentary evidence, chronology and supporting material relating to Laura Vanessa Nunes’ death are presented in Suicide at the Burj Khalifa – the book A dedicated book page is available within the Books section of this website.
The paperback and ebook are available through Amazon storefronts including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Canada, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Australia and others.
Please note: Amazon Singapore is currently displaying an older, unavailable record of the paperback that is no longer in print and does not list the revised edition of the paperback or the ebook. Readers are encouraged to purchase through one of the alternative Amazon storefronts listed above.
There are also websites offering the book at discounted prices. As Amazon is currently the authorised retailer, readers should exercise caution when interacting with such sites.
All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to animal welfare and humanitarian relief.
To this day, authorities in Dubai have not publicly and transparently acknowledged Laura’s death from the Burj Khalifa, which has been the driving force behind writing the book. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it will never be buried again.
Further documentary evidence is available within the Evidence section of this website.
Wikipedia
After visiting Dubai and viewing the CCTV footage of the final moments of Laura’s life – before she disappeared through a gap in the glass wall of the 148th floor observation deck – I added her death to the Burj Khalifa on Wikipedia, using the Lieutenant Colonel’s name from the Burj Dubai police station as a reference.
It sat there quietly and unnoticed for two months. Then, almost four months after Laura’s death, the Daily Mail article was added to the Burj Khalifa article. Dubai’s denial was swift: they stated that Laura had not died at the Burj Khalifa, but had fallen from the Jumeirah Lake Towers.
Months later I added the Medical Forensic Report – which I referred to as the Coroner’s Report – to the article. It was eventually removed. I had not known that as Laura’s mother I was not permitted to add anything to the article. It was a conflict of interest.
As of 26 August 2026, the current Wikipedia entry reads: “On 18 May 2015, Dubai police disputed a report that a Portuguese tourist named Laura Vanessa Nunes fell to her death from the Burj Khalifa the prior 16 November, claiming she fell from the Jumeirah Lake Towers. Nine News obtained emails from Portugal’s embassy in the UAE under freedom of information laws, which indicated that the female tourist jumped from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa.”
Three things are worth noting.
First, Laura’s death from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa was confirmed – not merely “indicated.” Second, what Nine News obtained was not simply emails – it was a formal interview conducted under Portugal’s Freedom of Information Act with a senior Portuguese diplomat. Third, Dubai Police claimed to be disputing a report. By that point t he Daily Mail report had been removed – Wikipedia editors had determined that the Daily Mail is not a verifiable source. There was no report to dispute.
I have the conversation between some editors querying why the article had been removed before allowing other to make up their own minds. While working on this book I asked for the article on Laura’s death to be corrected. It was not.
Why This Website Exists
This website documents Laura’s life, her death, the documentary evidence, media reporting and my subsequent investigation. Its purpose is to preserve the evidence, promote transparency, and ensure that Laura’s story can never again be buried.
New Evidence & Research
This section highlights recently added evidence, documents, media coverage and extracts from the book, Suicide at the Burj Khalifa. Content is updated regularly as additional material is added to the archive.
Recently Added
Newly released diplomatic correspondence records the evolving information provided to Portuguese officials in the hours following Laura Vanessa Nunes’ death in Dubai.
Diplomatic Correspondence Relating to Laura Vanessa Nunes
Following the recovery of physical evidence indicating that Laura may have been staying at Abidos Hotel Dubailand, I contacted the hotel seeking clarification regarding her accommodation, bookings and personal belongings.
The phone rang. It was an inspector from the Dubai Police who had been instructed to phone me and to answer all my questions.
When I asked if I could see the CCTV footage, he grew aggressive and impatient. When I asked where Laura had been staying, he grew even more hostile.
5 January 2015, from Suicide at the Burj Khalifa. Chapter 3: The Dusky Pink Handbag
While writing this book I discovered that At the Top SKY has lost its title as the world’s highest outdoor observation deck. As of 5 January 2026, the Clock Tower in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, now holds that record at a height of 560.875 metres.
The Burj Khalifa, however, retains another distinction: the world’s highest lounge, located at 584.5 metres. The Lounge spans levels 152, 153, and 154. An outdoor balcony forms part of the 152nd floor and is protected only by a chest-high glass barrier.
Yet just four levels above the At the Top SKY deck, there remains an outdoor balcony protected only by a chest-high glass barrier, lower than those on the 124th and 125th floor, where barriers extend well above head height.
After Laura’s death, I raised concerns about the open gaps in the glass barriers on the 148th floor. While those gaps were reduced, it remains troubling that just four floors higher, an outdoor balcony with only a chest-high barrier is accessible.
Explore
The Life of Laura Vanessa Nunes
A life, a voice, and the truth that remains
From the description of the book: This book tells Laura’s story—her life, her vulnerabilities, and her complex psychological struggles. It explores the emotional collapse she experienced, catalysed by an unrequited love that began in 2009 with a man referred to here as Youssef*, a figure who would have a profound and enduring influence on her life…”
From the book: “She knew Dubai was bad for her, yet she couldn’t let it go. She said her soul belonged there. And of course, the love of her life, the mysterious Emirati she had met in 2009, lived there.
I remembered the photograph she shared with me on WhatsApp in September 2012 shortly before her visit to South Africa, a headshot of a swarthy Arab, older than I expected.
She had finally given him a name: Youssef* (not his real name). As I later understood, he was a powerful and wealthy local Emirati businessman with high level connections. His name has been changed for privacy and legal reasons.”
This site also ensures that Laura is remembered, and her voice is heard, not only through the circumstances surrounding her death, but through her thoughts, her notes, her choice of music, her view of life, and the personal material she left behind. These materials will gradually be introduced on her page, LAURA which is currently under development.
For so many years Laura’s life has been obscured by her death. Writing the book has been cathartic for me as her mother and finally I can start to remember her when she was alive. It is time to celebrate her life.
She was thoughtful, creative, and expressive, leaving behind work and reflections that provide insight into her character and perspective.
Her writings, music, and personal reflections reveal how she understood and engaged with the world.
Last updated 27 August, 2026.
Leona Sykes