Brazilian Police Arrest Adimar Jesus da Silva, Who Confessed to Killing Six Missing Youths From Luziânia
The laborer, freed from prison days before the first disappearance, led police to six graves outside the town near Brasília. A prosecutor said his account was riddled with contradictions.
Published
Six young people vanished from one neighborhood of Luziânia, near Brasília, in the space of about three weeks. On April 10, 2010, police arrested a laborer, Adimar Jesus da Silva, who confessed and led them to the graves.
Da Silva, 40, was arrested at home in Parque Estrela Dalva, the same neighborhood the six had disappeared from. He had been released from Brasília's Papuda prison on December 23, 2009, after serving time for abusing two minors in 2005. Police focused on residents with records of sexual crimes, monitored him for 10 days and, through a court-authorized wiretap, learned he had given one missing teenager's mobile phone to a girl, OneIndia reported. "We have a confession and the bodies," said Police Commissioner Wesley Almeida. The bodies were in shallow graves on the Fazenda Buracão, about 1.8 kilometers from the entrance to Luziânia. The six were George Rabelo dos Santos, 17; Márcio Luiz de Souza Lopes, 19; Flávio Augusto dos Santos, 14; Divino Luiz Lopes da Silva, 16; Paulo Victor Vieira de Azevedo Lima, 16; and Diego Alves Rodrigues, 13.
Da Silva was moved to Goiânia and presented to the press there. Correio Braziliense, which interviewed him, said his account was full of inconsistencies, including about his motive. Prosecutor Ricardo Rangel called the decision to let reporters question him before his formal statement irresponsible. "They turned the case into a circus show," he said.
OneIndia reported that the six went missing in the first two weeks of January 2010, while Correio Braziliense said they disappeared between December 30, 2009, and January 22, 2010.
Sources
- Relato de Adimar de Jesus e cheio de incoerencias, Correio Braziliense
- Brazil paedophile held for raping, killing 6, OneIndia