Brazilian real estate agent Célia Maria de Carvalho Damasceno, 43, started a passionate romance via Internet with a 17-year-old boy. During Carnaval, which was celebrated earlier this month, she met the minor for the first time. She didn't know, however, he was not interested in her but in her money.
Last Saturday, February 24, Célia went again to see the boy. She never came back home. The police found her body this Wednesday, February 28, with her hands tied up and a gag over her mouth. The woman was apparently clubbed to death and buried on the backyard of an abandoned house on the road to Genipabu beach, in the metropolitan area of Natal, the capital city of the northern state of Rio Grande do Norte.Â
Now the teenager is blaming his cousin Carlos Eduardo Cabral (photo), who is 18 and Cabral's girlfriend, a minor, for the crime. The police found at Google's social networking site, Orkut, which is Brazil's MySpace, more than 20 pages of dialogues between the woman and the 17-year-old.
The police counted on the help of the victim's daughter, a 20-year-old, who created a profile in Orkut to lure the suspect. When she was able to arrange a date with the teen she brought the police together.
According to the police, both young men have already been arrested before for robbery in Natal and São Paulo. Both of them came from São Paulo a few months ago.
The preliminary police report states that Célia was killed Saturday night. She had left home saying that she was going to a barbecue at the beach.
The youngsters' intention, according to Rio Grande do Norte's under secretary for Public Safety, police chief Maurílio Pinto, was to extort 4,000 reais (US$ 1,900) from the victim. As she refused to give them the money they assaulted her, tying up her arms and legs, gagging her and clubbing her to death.
It's believed that under torture she gave the teens her password for the ATM. Cabral, according to the police tried to withdraw money, but there was no funds.
While the 18-year-old boy says that he and his cousin hit the woman with a stick, the minor who had contacted Célia on Orkut, swears that he didn't kill anybody, that this was the work of his cousin together with his 16-year-old girlfriend.Â
While the police still don't know if the girl took part in the slaughter – she confessed she beat up the woman – they have found at her home two cell phones, bus vouchers and 6 reais (less than US$ 3).
