Mulungu is a small municipality in the state of Paraíba, in northeastern Brazil, about 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, according to the Associated Press. The AP described the area as isolated. Jornal da Paraíba placed the town in the state's Agreste region, and police tied the investigation to the Vale do Mamanguape, the region around it.
In September 2026 the Paraíba Civil Police named Jorlan Lopes da Silva, then 33, as the suspect in a series of 16 homicides committed in about three months in that region. He has not been tried, and he is presumed innocent of every one of those deaths unless a court finds otherwise.
Little is known of his early life. He was 33 when he was arrested. People in the area knew him as "Mosquito," the AP reported, because of his slight, frail build. The investigator who led the search for him, Douglas Garcia, told the AP that this slight build had helped him avoid capture for years.
The Italian news agency ANSA, in reports printed by the Brazilian magazine IstoÉ and by the regional site Tribuna do Sertão, said he had been released in May 2026 after serving five years in prison for other crimes. What those crimes were has not been reported. The Recife-based news site Portal de Prefeitura, citing the Civil Police, said the killings now under investigation took place after he left the prison system at the end of May 2026, and the Natal newspaper Agora RN, also citing the Civil Police, gave the same sequence.
He himself told police that he had first killed at the age of 13. Garcia repeated that statement to the AP, calling him "a very different person." No court record or police finding about a killing at that age was published, and it stands as his own claim.
The Civil Police said they had linked him to at least 16 homicides committed within about three months, from the end of May into September 2026, mainly in municipalities of the Vale do Mamanguape. The Estadão Conteúdo news service, in a report printed by Tribuna do Sertão, said police described the evidence on those 16 cases as strong, including technical evidence and confessions. Portal de Prefeitura quoted Delegado Douglas Garcia to the same effect: the cases were supported by technical proof and by confessions.
The authorities did not release the names of the dead. Garcia told the AP that the identities of the victims and the details of their deaths were being kept confidential so that the prosecution could do its work. AFP, in a report printed by Gulf News, also said that the victims' identities and the details of the killings had not been made public.
One case was described. According to Garcia, investigators were able to tie him to a string of crimes that had at first seemed unconnected after the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old in Mulungu. The AP gave no name, date or further detail for that death. Garcia's account of the investigation was that the deaths had been hard to link precisely because the man police suspected lived mostly in the woods.
The number of confessions was reported in two ways. The Civil Police told AFP that they had confirmed his involvement in 16 killings and that he had confessed to 11 of them during questioning. An AP report printed by the Canadian broadcaster CP24 the same day said a Paraíba police spokeswoman, Gerlane Pereira, told the AP that he had admitted 11 more killings. The AP wording reads as 11 killings beyond the 16; AFP's reads as 11 within them. Neither report gave the cases.
Garcia told the AP that the suspect had hidden in thick bush, in makeshift camps he built himself. "Jorlan lived mostly in the woods, that's why it was so hard to find him," Garcia said, adding that this was also why it had been hard to link him to crimes that did not seem connected at first.
AFP reported that he had slipped away from an earlier attempt to arrest him, a few weeks before his capture, after a confrontation with security forces. Those forces, AFP said, regarded him as a member of an "ultra-violent" criminal group. The report did not say where or when that confrontation took place.
The search that ended his time at large lasted about 48 hours, according to Jornal da Paraíba, Portal de Prefeitura, Estadão Conteúdo and ANSA. AFP described it as a manhunt of 30 hours in a forested area. The Civil Police and the Military Police of Paraíba carried it out together. The Federal Highway Police supplied information, and the state's Integrated Command and Control Center (CICC) gave support, Jornal da Paraíba reported.
Officers held a preventive detention warrant, a court order for pretrial custody, issued by the Paraíba courts. Jornal da Paraíba, which reported the arrest the same day, said he was taken on Sunday, September 13, 2026, in Mulungu. Portal de Prefeitura and Agora RN gave the same day. Garcia told the AP that the pursuit ended on September 13.
When the officers reached him he was wearing women's clothing. The AP described a black dress with white stripes, a wig and painted nails; Ynet, citing news agencies, added sunglasses. The Civil Police said he had used the clothes, and a child he was carrying, to avoid being recognized while trying to leave the area. Garcia gave the AP his reading of what had happened: the suspect had been unable to get back to his tent in the woods, and in desperation had put on the disguise and taken a baby that was not his before he was caught.
The child he was holding was about two years old, police said, and was not related to him. Portal de Prefeitura reported that the child received medical care and was well. IstoÉ, carrying the ANSA report, said the child was in good health and had been handed over to guardians. Estadão Conteúdo reported that how the child came to be with him was still under investigation, and Agora RN said the same. The authorities released no name and no information about the child's family, and the AP said they gave no details beyond confirming that the child was not his.
Two other men were arrested in Mulungu during the same period. Jornal da Paraíba described their arrest as a separate police action and quoted Delegado Marcos Paulo Sales of the Civil Police, who was responsible for the arrests, as saying both men belonged to the same criminal faction active in the region. Estadão Conteúdo reported that police linked the two men to the crimes and to a faction that originated in Rio de Janeiro and operated in Paraíba, and said the investigation would establish each man's role. The two were not named, and no outcome in their cases was reported.
Sales conducted the interrogation, according to Estadão Conteúdo. In it, the suspect said he had killed about 80 people over the course of his life. Every outlet that reported the figure treated it as his claim. Portal de Prefeitura stated that the total remained under investigation and did not represent a number of confirmed crimes. O Liberal, carrying the Agência Estado report, said the evidence police held related to the 16 recent homicides, not to the larger figure. Agora RN said police would compare his account with unsolved homicide cases to look for matches.
AFP obtained a video of part of the questioning. In it, AFP reported, he said that he had acted alone and denied any tie to organized crime. He said the people he targeted were "linked to the criminal world" and that he had acted against threats to himself and to his family. He said he had never acted against a family man, a mother or a working person, and he denied being a psychopath.
He told investigators at the time of his arrest that he was "in a personal war," the AP reported. Garcia told the AP that the suspect claimed to have attacked only criminals, but that the evidence collected so far showed otherwise. Garcia did not say what that evidence was.
Two accounts of the man run side by side. When he was arrested, police described him as a member of a criminal gang that had killed dozens of people in the region, the AP said, and Estadão Conteúdo reported that the two men arrested with him were held as members of the same faction. Security forces, according to AFP, regarded him as part of an ultra-violent group. He denied all of it. In the interrogation video he said he worked alone, and he told investigators that his war was a personal one. Estadão Conteúdo said the investigation was also meant to establish whether other crimes were linked to the group.
After a custody hearing on Monday, September 14, 2026, a judge kept him in detention, Portal de Prefeitura reported, and he was taken to the public jail in Alagoinha, Paraíba. The Public Defender's Office represented him at the hearing. Agora RN reported that his arrest was converted to preventive detention after the hearing and that he was sent into the prison system. Estadão Conteúdo said it had not been able to reach his defense.
Police said the inquiry would go beyond the 16 deaths. The AP, in the report printed by CP24, said Paraíba police would reopen dozens of cases linked to him. Garcia told the AP that the suspect was providing evidence of crimes beyond those he was being prosecuted for, but that he could not discuss them because some investigations were still under way and others were being reopened. Agora RN reported that police were also checking his possible role in other crimes.
By the end of September 2026 the case was an investigation, not a trial. No formal charges by prosecutors had been reported, and the offenses he would face had not been made public. He has not been tried for any death, and he is presumed innocent.
Several details were reported differently in the first days after the arrest.
His name. Most reports, including those of the AP, ANSA, IstoÉ and Agora RN, give it as Jorlan Lopes da Silva. Reports from the Estadão Conteúdo service, as printed by Tribuna do Sertão and by O Liberal, give Jorlan Alves da Silva. Jornal da Paraíba and Portal de Prefeitura gave only his first name.
The date. Jornal da Paraíba reported the arrest on the day it happened, Sunday, September 13, 2026, and the AP, Agora RN and Portal de Prefeitura give the same date. The Estadão Conteúdo report printed on September 15 put the arrest on Tuesday, September 15.
The length of the search. Most Brazilian reports said the operation lasted about 48 hours; AFP said 30 hours.
The confessions. AFP's police source said he confessed to 11 of the 16 killings; the AP's police spokeswoman said he admitted 11 more.
The 80 deaths. He made that claim himself in questioning. Police said they had not verified it and that it did not count as a total of proven crimes.
May 2026: released from prison after a five-year term for other crimes, according to ANSA.
End of May 2026 to September 2026: the period in which police say the 16 homicides attributed to him took place, mainly in the Vale do Mamanguape, Paraíba.
Some weeks before his capture (date not reported): he escapes an earlier attempt to arrest him after a confrontation with security forces, according to AFP.
September 13, 2026 (Sunday): arrested in Mulungu on a preventive detention warrant after an operation of about 48 hours by the Civil and Military Police, wearing a dress and wig and carrying a two-year-old child who was not his; two other men arrested in Mulungu.
September 14, 2026 (Monday): custody hearing; held in preventive detention and taken to the public jail in Alagoinha.
September 18, 2026: police tell AFP he confessed to 11 of the 16 killings; a police spokeswoman tells the AP he admitted 11 more and that dozens of cases will be reopened.
September 21 and 22, 2026: Garcia tells the AP that some investigations are continuing and others are being reopened.