Man convicted of murder in crime where victim’s body was never found in SC

Crime happened in 2022 in Galvão, in the west of Santa Catarina (Photo: Salmo Duarte, Archive, NSC Total)

The defendant was sentenced to 13 years in prison for killing a man by asphyxiation. The victim’s body, however, was never found. The crime took place in October 2022 in Galvão, in the west of Santa Catarina. He was tried for the crimes of murder and concealment of a corpse and must serve his sentence in a closed regime. The decision can still be appealed.

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According to the Public Ministry, the killer had the help of a teenager to place the body in a car and take it to a previously unknown location.

According to the complaint, in the early hours of October 6, 2022, the defendant was at his ex-partner’s house alone in the company of her daughter. At the time, the victim went to the address and, upon seeing the man in the company of the teenager, said he would tell the young woman’s mother that he had a relationship with her.

At the same moment, the three began an attack. The teenager, according to the MP, had hit the man with a broom and, afterwards, the defendant squeezed his neck until he died. After the crime, with the help of the young woman, he wrapped the corpse in a sheet and placed it inside his ex-wife’s car. The body was never located.

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Conviction

The sentencing council accepted the Public Prosecutor’s thesis and convicted the defendant of qualified homicide, with an aggravating factor of futile motive and use of asphyxiation, in addition to concealment of a corpse.

There is still an appeal against the sentence, but the court denied the defendant the right to appeal in freedom and he remains in pre-trial detention. Regarding the teenager, she served a socio-educational internment order for almost six months, but is now on assisted release.