Laura Vanessa Sykes

{Infobox person

| name        = Laura Vanessa Nunes

| image = Laura Vanessa Nunes.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 1976 | birth_place = | death_date = 16 November 2014 | death_place = 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa Dubai | nationality = South Africa/Portugal | other_names = Laura Nunes | known_for = Died by suicide from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa | occupation = Beauty/massage therapist }} Laura Vanessa Nunes died in Dubai, on 16 November 2014 from the At the Top Sky observation deck on the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa, under circumstances that has triggered controversy. )n 16 November 2014 Nunes died from a fall from a height. It was widely reported that she jumped from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. Local authorities assert, however, that she fell from her 14th floor of the Jumeirah Lakes Towers, a twenty minute drive from the Burj Khalifa. Laura had not been staying at the Jumeirah Lakes Towers, she had been staying in room 309 at the Abidos Hotel Dubailand, as proven by the invoices issued for her stay by the hotel. Mark Saunokono of 9new.au, using the Freedom of Information Act, received confirmation of Laura's death from the 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa from the Portuguese embassy in Abu Dhabi. The government of Dubai issued a Coroner's Report in both Arabic and English stating that Laura's body was found on the third floor of the Burj Khalifa.

Nunes was a Beauty/massage therapist, with joint South African and Portugese citizenship. At the time of her death she was living in Dubai, on a tourist visa. She was reported to have been looking for work.

According to her mother, Leona Sykes Nunes had begun an affair with a Dubai businessman, in 2011, and had converted to Islam. Nunes jumped during a moment of despair, after her lover broke off their relationship. Her mother described a surviellance video from a public observation deck, which showed Nunes standing next to an open gap between two large panes of glass which had been designed to let photographers stick their cameras outside of the building's envelope to take photographs. then retreating from the barrier, and then advancing on this hole, and being able to slip through, to her death.

Nunes's mother asserts Dubai authorities are trying to cover up that her death occurred at the Burj Khalifa, because it detracts from its value as a tourist destination.

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