Murder of Eliza Samudio

Brazilian model and pornographic actress Eliza Silva Samudio was killed in June 2010 by goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes das Dores de Souza, known simply as Bruno.^[1][2] During the investigations, one of the witnesses reported that Samudio had been killed by strangulation before being dismembered and buried under a layer of concrete.^[3]

The trial was scheduled to take place on November 19, 2012, at 9 am, at the Tribunal do Juri de Contagem, in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte.^[2] However, it was postponed to March 4, 2013.^[4]

Eliza Silva Samudio was born in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná on February 22, 1985, to architect Luiz Carlos Samudio^[5] and farmer Sônia Fátima Silva Moura.^[5] Her parents lived together in Foz do Iguaçu for a year. Sônia Fátima was often attacked by her husband. Because of these events, and also for financial reasons, she left six-month-old Eliza with her father. From then on, she saw her occasionally. After some time, Sônia went to live in Mato Grosso do Sul, where she remarried and had a son. She operated a small pepper production farm with her husband. When Eliza turned ten, she went to live with her mother in Campo Grande for a year before returning to her father's house.^[3]

Since the age of 13, Samudio wanted to leave her hometown to become a model on the Rio–São Paulo axis, and she moved to the capital of São Paulo at the age of eighteen.^[3] Not knowing anyone in town and experiencing financial difficulties, she began working as a call girl to support herself until she managed to become a model. Lawyer Jader Marques confirmed in an interview that Samudio participated in fashion shows and editorials, acted in pornographic films from 2005 to 2009, in addition to participating in sexy photoshootings for the erotic producer Brasileirinhas with the artistic name of Fernanda Farias.^[3]

Eliza Samudio and Bruno Fernandes had known each other since 2008, according to witnesses.^[6] Fernandes claimed that he met Samudio in May 2009, at a barbecue in Rio de Janeiro. According to Fernandes, he met Samudio at a party and had sex with her at the home of another Flamengo player, during which his condom broke. He claimed that parties of this type are common among soccer players.^[7] After the party, both began to meet frequently, and Samudio left the life of prostitution to be with Fernandes, at his request. Although he was married, he promised that he would separate from his wife to be with Samudio.

In August 2009, Fernandes ended his relationship with Samudio after she announced that she was pregnant with his child and refused to have an abortion.^[8]

On October 13, 2009, the model filed a complaint with the police saying that the day prior she had been kept in private prison by the goalkeeper and his friends "Russo" and "Macarrão", and forced to take abortive substances. She also accused them of having beaten her, and said that Fernandes had pointed a gun at her head. The Legal Medical Institute of Rio de Janeiro and the police only concluded their forensic examinations in July 2010,^[8] when the model's disappearance was already treated as a homicide.

After being prohibited by Maria Aparecida Mallet, a delegate from the Specialized Police Station for Women (DEAM) of Jacarepaguá, from approaching the model for less than 300 meters, Fernandes released a note in which he denied the aggression:^[9]

"It's not the first time she's made up this bunch of lies to try to harm me. The other time she didn't prove anything and she won't prove it again, because she made up this whole story. It got to the point where, yesterday, I sent an email to some newspaper offices in Rio saying that I missed Flamengo training because I was with her. But I attended both morning and afternoon practices, as all the journalists present could confirm. That's why I decided that I'm only going to speak through my lawyer, who will take all the necessary measures to prevent her from continuing to try to harm me. She doesn't conform because I've already made it clear that I don't want any kind of relationship with her. I'm not going to give this girl the 15 minutes of fame she so desperately craves."

In 2009, judge Ana Paula Delduque Migueis Laviola de Freitas, denied Samudio's request for protection, arguing that Samudio did not have an intimate relationship with Fernandes, and that she was "trying to punish the aggressor under penalty of to trivialize the purpose of the Maria da Penha Law".^[10]

The judge then referred the case to a criminal court. In his decision, he asserted that the Maria da Penha Law "has as its goal the protection of the family, whether it comes from a stable union or marriage, as well as the objective of protecting women in the affective relationship, and not in the purely occasional and sexual". She did not consider Samudio's condition, five months pregnant.^[10]

Samudio's child was born on February 10, 2010, in São Paulo, where Samudio was living at a friend's house since discovering her pregnancy. Fernandes refused to acknowledge the paternity, accusing her of wanting to give the "coup of the belly" because he has money.^[10] Samudio filed a paternity claim after arriving to live with her son in the city of Rio de Janeiro in hotels paid for by Fernandes. She started demanding child support and accused him of assault, for which Fernandes was indicted.^[10]

In a statement released on July 2, the police revealed the referrals only then given to the drug test:^[10]

"The General Department of Technical-Scientific Police of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro (DGPTC) informs that a group of substances considered abortifacient was found in the urine of Eliza Samudio. The experts who analyzed the collected material decided, given the complexity of the case, to send the material to the UFRJ laboratory, with which the Civil Police maintains an agreement in order to confirm 100% of the analysis made by them, excluding any possibility of such grouping. belong to other compounds. According to experts, such a mixture can also be found even in the simultaneous consumption of alcoholic beverages with tobacco. According to the DGPTC, the final result will be ready next Monday, July 5th."

According to police investigations, before disappearing Samudio was at Fernandes's farm in Esmeraldas, Minas Gerais, at his request. She went to the farm on June 4, 2010, with Fernandes seemingly willing to negotiate a settlement. The model's disappearance occurred during that trip.^[11] She still held out hope of having a reconciliation with the goalkeeper. Fernandes claimed that she left the farm of her own accord, and that she abandoned her child with a common colleague of the former couple. The boy was found in a favela in Ribeirão das Nevesand. Dayanne Rodrigues do Carmo Souza, the goalkeeper's wife, was suspected of having left him there, and was also investigated.^[11]

On June 26, 2010, the Civil Police of Minas Gerais declared Fernandes a suspect in Samudio's disappearance. On July 6, 2010, Fernandes's 17-year-old cousin was found at Fernandes's residence in Barra da Tijuca, and claimed to have hit Samudio with the butt of a gun. He further claimed that while unconscious, she was taken to Minas Gerais, and there dismembered by drug dealers at the behest of the goalkeeper and given to Rottweiler dogs. The model's bones were then entombed in concrete. This version was not confirmed by the police. On July 8, 2010, former police officer Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, known as "Neném", "Paulista" or "Bola", and also accused of killing Eliza Samudio, was arrested by the Military Police of Minas Gerais.^[11] The date of death is estimated by investigators to have been June 10, 2010.^[12]

After the disappearance, Samudio's mother asked for custody of her child, which was granted. Samudio's father pleaded in court for custody of his grandson and recognition of paternity by Fernandes. Custody was revoked from the maternal grandfather because it was discovered that he had raped a ten-year-old girl in Paraná, some years ago, and it was also discovered that he allowed men to abuse his daughter during her childhood in exchange for money.^[13]

The Justice of Minas Gerais issued the arrest warrant for the teenager who gave testimony on July 6, 2010, and the preventive detention of Fernandes and seven other people on the 7th. The Justice of Rio de Janeiro had also issued the preventive detention of Bruno and Luiz Henrique Romão, known as Macarrão, for Samudio's kidnapping and false imprisonment in October 2009.^[14] Fernandes and Macarrão surrendered to the police in Rio de Janeiro and were taken to Polinter do Andaraí, where they were transferred to the Complexo Gericinó Penitentiary in Bangu. The 38th Criminal Court of Rio complied with the request of the Minas Gerais Police and ordered the transfer of both to Minas Gerais.^[15]

The trial of Bruno Fernandes, Luiz Henrique Romão, Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, Dayanne Rodrigues do Carmo Souza, Fernanda Gomes de Castro, Elenilson Vitor da Silva and Wemerson Marques de Souza, accused of various crimes, began in Contagem, Minas Gerais, on November 19, 2012, more than two years after Samudio's disappearance. Marixa Fabiane Lopes Rodrigues was the judge. The case went to popular jury, composed of six women and one man, selected from the 25 people called initially. The prosecution and attorneys for each defendant were able to turn away three jurors.^[16] The prosecutor in the case was Henry Wagner Vasconcelos de Castro. Among the defense lawyers were, on the first day of the trial: Rui Caldas Pimenta (Bruno) and Franscisco Simim (Dayanne and Bruno); Fernando Magalhaes, Zanone Oliveira Jr. and Ércio Quaresma (Marcos dos Santos); Leonardo Diniz (Luiz Romão); Carla Cilene (Fernanda); Frederico Franco (Elenilson); and Paulo Sávio Cunha Gimarães (Wemerson).

Before the start of the trial, the judge established that no seat in the audience would be offered to people from the Contagem region, and that they would be reserved for relatives of those involved in the case, journalists, and law students. The trial was also not broadcast live.^[17]

On the first day, there was disagreement between defense lawyers for Marcos Aparecido dos Santos and the judge. They questioned some defense deadlines established by the same and abandoned the trial. The defendant refused the appointment of a public defender and ended up dismembering his trial. Ércio Quaresma, one of Marcos dos Santos' lawyers stated that he would not work in a trial where "the defense is curtailed".^[18]

On the second day, Fernandes asked for the dismissal of his defense lawyers, Rui Pimenta and Francisco Simim. Judge Marixa Fabiane Rodrigues denied the request, stating that she saw it as "a ploy to postpone the judgment", as the goalkeeper had previously asked for Francisco Simim's dismissal. After the fact, the trial proceeded with the prosecution's witnesses.^[19]

On the third day, judge Marixa Fabiana decided to postpone Fernandes's trial to March 2013. According to her, the postponement was requested by the goalkeeper's defense. The jury continued for the other two defendants in the process: Luiz Henrique Romão (Macarrão) and Fernanda Gomes de Castro (the goalkeeper's ex-girlfriend).^[4]

In the end, Macarrão was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Eliza Samudio.^[20]

The 1st Family Court of Barra da Tijuca, also decided that the Flamengo club should pay child support, and should deposit, every 5th of each month, 17.5% of the amount received by the athlete, in addition to any labor sums that the athlete is entitled. The club, in turn, said it would not be possible, because Bruno Fernandes's contract was suspended and he no longer received a salary. Flamengo appealed the decision.^[21][22]

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• 2008 or early 2009: Fernandes meets Samudio at a barbecue in Rio de Janeiro. The two begin an extramarital relationship.^[1]
• May 21, 2009: Samudio becomes pregnant.
• October 13, 2009: The troubled relationship between Bruno Fernandes and model Eliza Samudio became public after the newspaper Extra published an interview, recorded on video, in which Samudio tells that she had been threatened with death by the player.^[23] Five months pregnant, Samudio filed a complaint against Fernandes, at the DEAM – Specialized Police Station for Women in Jacarepaguá, in Rio de Janeiro, for attempted kidnapping, aggression, and threat. Fernandes denies having committed any crime.^[9] After the episode, the police asked for protective measures that prevented the goalkeeper from approaching more than 300 meters from Samudio and her family. Fernandes started to be criminally investigated. Samudio went to São Paulo and stayed at a friend's mother's house.
• February 10, 2010: Samudio's son is born. Fernandes does not acknowledge paternity. According to lawyer Jader Marques, Eliza's father's lawyer, she files a lawsuit in court for Bruno to recognize the paternity of the son and pay the alimony.
• March 6, 2010: With the aim of appeasing the situation of his friend Adriano when the attacker had a fight with his ex-fiancée, Joana Machado, in Favela da Chatuba, Fernandes asked reporters: "Who never got into a fight with his wife?".^[24]
• June 4, 2010: This is the last contact made by the family according to lawyer Jader Marques. Samudio's friends say that she would go to Minas Gerais to talk to Fernandes, at his request. From then on, she does not contact anyone else.
• June 5, 2010: Fernandes's last official game with Flamengo's shirt.^[25]
• June 10, 2010: Samudio is supposedly murdered by Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, "Bola".
• June 24 and 25, 2010: In a 181 (Disque-Denúncia) call, the police receive reports that Samudio had been attacked, killed, her clothes burned, and her body hidden in a place belonging to the athlete Bruno Fernandes in Esmeraldas, Minas Gerais. Since then the site has been guarded.
• June 25, 2010: Dayanne de Souza, Fernandes's wife, testifies along with two farm workers. Dayanne is charged and detained for subtraction of incapacitated and then released.
• June 26, 2010: Samudio's son is found by the police at dawn in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte.
• June 27, 2010: Eliza Samudio's father, Luiz Carlos Samudio, goes to Contagem to pick up his grandson^[25] who was in a shelter. Military police and firefighters tried to enter the site, but could not, as they did not obtain a court order.^[1]
• June 28, 2010: Luiz Carlos Samudio returns to Foz do Iguaçu with his grandson. The police search the goalkeeper's farm for Eliza's body. Women's clothes, children's objects, and diapers were found.^[1]
• July 2, 2010: Sônia Fátima Moura, Eliza Samudio's mother, asks for custody of her grandson. Experts examine Fernandes's car, a Range Rover, which had been seized in a blitz in June, because the documents were irregular. According to police, traces of Samudio's blood were found in the vehicle.^[26]
• July 5, 2010: The police receive a complaint, saying that the victim's body was thrown into a pond in Ribeirão das Neves, Minas Gerais.^[27]
• July 6, 2010: A 17-year-old teenager, who was apprehended in Bruno's apartment, in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, testifies at the Homicide Police Station in Barra da Tijuca. He claims that he participated in the kidnapping and hit the victim with the butt. Samudio had her arms tied with a rope and was strangled by Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, a former police officer known as Bola. According to the teenager, after strangling Samudio, Bola asked everyone to leave the place. Afterwards, he headed towards a kennel, carrying a bag that supposedly contained Samudio's dismembered corpse. Samudio's hand was thrown to dogs of the Rottweiler breed.
• July 7, 2010: The preventive detention of Bruno Fernandes and seven other people was issued by the Justice of Minas Gerais, as well as the arrest warrant for the teenager who gave testimony the day before. The Justice of Rio de Janeiro also issued the preventive detention of Bruno Fernandes and Luiz Henrique Romão, known as Macarrão, for kidnapping and false imprisonment of Eliza Silva Samudio, in October 2009.^[28] Both surrender to the police in Rio of January and were taken to Polinter do Andaraí. Before 2:30 pm, the two were taken to the Gericinó Penitentiary Complex, in Bangu. According to the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration (Seap), they are in the Alfredo Tranjan Bangu 2 Penitentiary. The 38th Criminal Court of Rio complied with the request and determined on Thursday afternoon the transfer of goalkeeper Bruno and his friend Luiz Henrique Romão, "Macarrão", to Minas Gerais.^[15]
• July 8, 2010: Eliza Samudio's mother gets provisional custody of her 4-month-old grandson in court. The child was at his maternal grandfather's house in Foz do Iguaçu. Prevented from exercising his role at Flamengo because he was at the disposal of the Justice, Flamengo suspended the contract with Fernandes, the day after his arrest. As a result, from then on, the club no longer paid a salary to the athlete. Olympikus, the club's sporting material supplier and the player's sponsor, also suspended Fernandes's sponsorship contract until the case was concluded.
• July 9, 2010: Fernandes and the other suspects in the disappearance of Eliza Samudio are held in prison at the Nelson Hungary Penitentiary, in Contagem, Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte. The prisoners are in isolated cells, measuring 6m²,^[29] and with no communication between them.
• July 15, 2010: Flamengo decided, after a meeting of its legal commission, to dismiss Fernandes for just cause.^[30]
• July 30, 2010: Survey delivered. Bruno, Macarrão, Bola, and six other people were indicted.
• October 29, 2010: A DNA test requested by lawyer José Arteiro Cavalcante Lima, representing Eliza's mother, proves that Fernandes is the father of Samudio's child.
• April 13, 2011: Bruno Fernandes's habeas corpus request is denied.
• May 4, 2011: Sérgio Rosa Sales' (Bruno's cousin) habeas corpus request is denied.
• June 21, 2012: Eliza's mother receives an anonymous letter talking about the possible location where her daughter's remains were left.
• August 22, 2012: Sérgio Rosa Sales, considered a key witness in the case and Bruno Fernandes's cousin, is found dead in the Minaslândia neighborhood of Belo Horizonte. According to the police, Sérgio was on his way to work when he was chased by two men on a motorcycle. He tried to hide in a house, but he was killed with six shots.^[31]
• November 19, 2012: Start of the trial of the defendants.
• November 21, 2012: The trial of goalkeeper Fernandes was dismembered and postponed to March 2013, according to the decision of the judge responsible for the case. The postponement was granted by the judge at the request of Fernandes's defense.^[4]
• November 24, 2012: Luiz Henrique Ferreira Romão, "Macarrão", is sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated homicide, and Fernanda Gomes de Castro, ex-girlfriend of goalkeeper Bruno, to 5 years in prison for participating in the crime.^[32]
• December 31, 2012: Bruno's link with Flamengo is officially ended.^[33]
• January 15, 2013: The judge orders the issuance of Eliza Samudio's death certificate. The decision, which cannot be appealed, was published in the Electronic Judiciary Gazette. On the warrant, the cause of death was stated to be asphyxiation.^[34]
• March 4, 2013: Beginning of the retrial of goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes.^[4]
• March 8, 2013: Fernandes was sentenced to 17 years and 6 months in a closed regime for triple qualified homicide (for base reasons, asphyxiation and use of a resource that made it difficult for the victim to defend himself), to another 3 years and 3 months in an open regime for kidnapping and false imprisonment and a further 1 year and 6 months for hiding a corpse. Dayanne was acquitted.^[35]
• April 27, 2013: Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, Bola, is sentenced to 22 years in prison. The penalty determines 19 years in prison in a closed regime for the homicide and another three years in prison in an open regime for concealing the corpse.^[36]
• February 28, 2014: Even under detention in a closed regime at the Penitentiary Nelson Hungary, Bruno signed a contract with Montes Claros Esporte Clube, a club that competes in the second division of the Campeonato Mineiro, valid until February 27, 2019, according to the Daily Newsletter from the CBF.^[37]
• July 23, 2014: For the first time, someone involved in the case "revealed" the location of Samudio's body.^[37] During the police and judicial investigation phases, all the suspects also denied knowing where Bola had hidden the body. The cousin of goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes Jorge Rosa Sales said in an interview with Rádio Tupi, in Rio de Janeiro, that he saw the athlete's ex-lover being buried in a place close to the Tancredo Neves International Airport, located in city of Confins, in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. Jorge stated that he even helped Bola and Macarrão to throw dirt over the corpse.^[38]
• July 24, 2014: Police carried out, without success, a new search for the remains of Eliza Samudio on land located on Rua Aranha, in the Santa Clara neighborhood, in Vespasiano (MG), in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. A hole measuring 15 meters wide by 10 meters long and 3 meters deep was opened, where only rubbish unrelated to the crime was found. In the face of the failure of the search, Bruno's cousin suggested that others involved in the crime may have decided to remove the body from the scene based on the premise that he would eventually hand over the information to the police.^[39]
• November 4, 2014: Justice denied permission for Fernandes to play for Montes Claros Futebol Clube. According to the judge, the activities of a professional athlete are incompatible with the legislation for outside work.
• June 20, 2016: Fernandes married Rio de Janeiro dentist Ingrid Calheiros, with whom he began a romantic relationship during the process of the case, in a ceremony held within the APAC (Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convict) in Santa Luzia.^[40]
• July 4, 2016: The Civil Police of Piauí took a statement from Rodrigo Fernandes das Dores de Sousa, 27, Bruno Fernandes's brother, in which he indicates the location where the remains of Eliza Samudio would be. In his speech to the delegate, he indicated that the remains were in a city in the interior of Minas Gerais.^[41]
• March 10, 2017: Fernandes obtained a habeas corpus by an injunction granted by STF Minister Marco Aurélio Mello, who understood that the player could wait in freedom while the case was not judged in second instance. The case was initially with Justice Teori Zavascki, who died in an air accident in January 2017. As it was an urgent measure (request for the release of someone arrested without a final conviction), the President of the STF, Justice Cármen Lúcia, forwarded the case to Minister Marco Aurélio Mello, who ordered Bruno's release.^[42]
• March 14, 2017: Fernandes makes his official presentation at Boa Esporte, the club with which he signed a contract. He wore the shirt with sponsors who had already left the club (because they did not agree with his hiring) and refused to answer some questions in his presentation.^[43]
• April 8, 2017: Fernandes's first official game with Boa Esporte-MG's shirt.^[44]
• April 20, 2017: The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJ-MG) upheld Bruno's acquittal for the crime of child corruption. The decision of the TJ-MG maintains the sentence of Judge Marixa Rodrigues who acquitted, in 2011, the defendants involved (Bruno Fernandes; Luiz Henrique Romão, Macarrão; Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, Bola; Dayanne Souza; Wemerson de Souza, Coxinha; Fernanda de Castro; Elenilson Vitor da Silva and Sergio Rosa Sales) in reference to the participation of the goalkeeper's cousin, Jorge Luiz Rosa, aged 17 at the time, who confessed to having participated in the kidnapping and false imprisonment of Eliza Samudio.^[45]
• April 20, 2017: Also on this day, the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to revoke the decision that released the goalkeeper from prison. Janot argued that the process is taking time to be analyzed in the second instance due to appeals presented by the defense itself, which would be postponing the trial.^[45]
• April 25, 2017: Fernandes returns to prison, after a 3–1 decision by the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Minister Marco Aurélio Mello on February 21, 2017. When analyzing the case, Marco Aurélio considered the fact that the player had a good record, in addition to highlighting that the appeal presented by the defense had not yet been considered by the Fourth Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais. Justices Alexandre de Moraes, Rosa Weber and Luiz Fuxvoted in favor of sending the goalkeeper back to prison, as requested by the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot.^[46]
• August 3, 2017: Justice authorized the goalkeeper to leave jail during the day to teach soccer at an entity, which will slightly reduce his sentence.^[47]
• September 27, 2017: By 2 votes to 1, the Court reduced the penalty for goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes from 22 years and 3 months to 20 years and 9 months, because the crime of hiding a corpse was prescribed.^[48]
• September 27, 2017: Another appeal judged on this date was by Fernanda Gomes de Castro. She was accused of kidnapping and false imprisonment of Eliza Samudio and her son Bruninho. The five-year sentence was reduced to three years and changed to two restrictive terms. The sentence for the crimes related to Samudio also expired, so the conviction decreased.^[48]
• October 25, 2017: Reduction of sentence is denied – the request for review of the sentence of more than 20 years in prison, with the argument that there were omissions in the previous judgment, was to reduce the sentence by 18 months, but was denied by the judges of the 4th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJMG).^[49]

• List of kidnappings
• List of solved missing person cases