Laerte Patrocínio Orpinelli was a drifter from Araras, in the interior of São Paulo state, who was sentenced in two separate trials to a combined 100 years in prison for the deaths of children. The first sentence, 62 years, was handed down at Franca in 2001. The second, 38 years, was given by a jury at Rio Claro on October 16, 2008. He was charged with murder, with other charges, in each case. He died in the Iaras penitentiary in January 2013.
The killings attributed to him fell mainly in the 1990s and spread across several towns. How many children died remains unsettled. The itemized convictions cover four children. A local report from the tenth anniversary of his death says he was convicted of ten murders. He himself was quoted in a television episode as saying he stopped counting after the number passed 100. No court tested that figure; it is his own statement.
Orpinelli was born in Araras in 1952, the seventh of nine children, according to Jornal Cidade RC. Little else about his upbringing is on record. In the early 1990s he was seen in Rio Claro as a wanderer who cleaned doors. The São Carlos Agora report on his 2008 trial describes his trade in the same way.
The convictions and the attributions point to four towns: Rio Claro, Franca, Monte Alto and Pirassununga. The killings were reported as spread over the 1990s, and a case in Franca and another in Rio Claro were the ones that reached verdicts. The dates of the individual deaths, and the order in which they happened, are not on record.
The one name that appeared in connection with Franca was that of a girl, Jéssica Alves Martins, described in a January 2013 report as the child for whose death he was convicted there. The two children named in the Rio Claro verdict were Marina Pereira Barbosa and José Fernando de Oliveira.
In Rio Claro the inquiry was led by the delegate Sueli Isler, with Fernando Basso, an officer of the Rio Claro Civil Police. Jornal Cidade RC reports that Basso worked on the case with Isler for about four months. Basso also appeared in a 2009 episode of the Discovery Channel series Instinto Assassino, and in the Investigação Criminal episode on Orpinelli, which first aired on AXN and later reached Netflix.
Orpinelli was arrested on January 10, 2000, in Leme, according to Jornal Cidade RC. The newspaper noted that although he became known by a name tying him to Rio Claro, he was from Araras and was arrested in Leme. The arrest and the trials that followed brought national attention to Rio Claro.
After his arrest he confessed to a number of killings. Investigators did not obtain enough evidence for every case he was said to have discussed. Other child deaths were attributed to him in 2013 reporting, but evidence sufficient for a conviction was lacking.
The first court to sentence him was in Franca. According to a January 2013 report, he received 62 years in 2001 for the deaths of two children. A separate report of his death names a girl as the child for whose killing he was convicted in Franca. The counts, the judge, the date of the verdict and the breakdown of the sentence are not on record.
A Jornal Cidade RC piece on a documentary about the case gives a different figure, a sentence of 27 years in 2003. No other account mentions a sentence in that year.
By the time of his 2008 trial he had been held since March 2002 at Penitenciária II de Serra Azul, near Ribeirão Preto, serving the 62-year sentence. São Carlos Agora reported in October 2008 that he was awaiting the outcome of further police inquiries into the deaths of children in the Serra Azul region.
The jury trial took place at the Fórum Criminal de Rio Claro. Orpinelli, then 56, was tried for the deaths of two children, Marina Pereira Barbosa and José Fernando de Oliveira. The verdict came on the afternoon of Thursday, October 16, 2008, at about five o'clock. São Carlos Agora, citing the Fórum's own statement, reported the sentence as 15 years for the death of Marina Pereira Barbosa and 15 years for the death of José Fernando de Oliveira, with 8 years for other charges involving the children, 38 years in all.
At the hearing he denied the crimes, on the advice of his lawyer. This contrasted with the confessions he had made to investigators after his arrest. The combined total came to 100 years, the 62 from Franca added to the 38 from Rio Claro.
The numbers attached to Orpinelli come from three different kinds of statement.
The first is the court record: two trials, four children named or counted, 62 years and 38 years. The second is a count of ten, which appears in the 2013 report from the GCN news service and in Jornal Cidade RC. The GCN report says he received 100 years in total for killing ten children in Franca, Rio Claro, Monte Alto and Pirassununga. Only four of the ten are accounted for by the itemized sentences, and the difference is not explained on record. The third is his own claim, in the Investigação Criminal episode, that the number passed 100.
São Carlos Agora, writing on his death, said the true number of victims could be higher, because there was insufficient evidence in other cases.
Orpinelli was held at the Iaras penitentiary, in São Paulo state, in his final years. He was found dead by prison guards on January 3, 2013. The state prison administration secretariat confirmed the death on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, according to São Carlos Agora. He was 60 and had diabetes and high blood pressure, and had received medical care in the days before he died.
The cause was at first unconfirmed. São Carlos Agora said the death was under investigation, with natural causes as the main hypothesis. Jornal Cidade RC later described it as a natural death. GCN reported that he had served 13 years of his sentence.
The case stayed in the memory of Rio Claro. Jornal Cidade RC marked the tenth anniversary of his death. A documentary on the case, produced by the Investigação Criminal channel and previously shown on television and streaming services, was released in full on YouTube; it includes interviews with police delegates, among them Sueli Isler Batelochi, about how he was located, the errors that allowed the crimes to continue and his manner when he described what he had done. A U.S. production company was reported in 2021 to have shown interest in a film based on a 2011 book by the journalist Reginaldo Carlota.
The total number of victims is the central open question. The sentences itemized in the reports concern four children. A figure of ten convictions appears in two local reports without a breakdown. His own figure of more than 100 was never put to a court. Reports also list further towns in which he is said to have admitted killings; none of these led to a verdict on record.
The 2003 sentence of 27 years in one account has no support elsewhere. The cause of his death was at first unconfirmed; natural causes was the working hypothesis and was later given as the cause.
1952: Laerte Patrocínio Orpinelli is born in Araras, São Paulo state.
1990s: child killings in Rio Claro and nearby towns, later attributed to him.
January 10, 2000: arrested in Leme after an inquiry led by the Rio Claro police.
2001: sentenced at Franca to 62 years.
March 2002: held at Penitenciária II de Serra Azul, near Ribeirão Preto.
October 16, 2008: a jury at the Fórum Criminal de Rio Claro sentences him to 38 years for the deaths of two children.
January 3, 2013: found dead in the Iaras penitentiary, aged 60.
January 16, 2013: the prison administration secretariat confirms the death.