Brazilian authorities say a 36-year-old law student has confessed to killing four people and testing her poison on dogs before the murders — a case that has horrified even veteran investigators.
She Lived With The Body of Her Landlord For Days
Ana Paula Veloso Fernandes, a mother and student from Guarulhos, São Paulo, allegedly told police she first killed her landlord, Marcelo Hari Fonseca, in January after an argument in which she claimed he threatened her family. She said she stabbed him under his right arm while he sat on the couch in her apartment — then lived with his body for five days before reporting the crime.
She Actually Called The Police Over The Smell
According to investigators, Fernandes covered the doorway to the room with a bedsheet to keep her young son and niece from seeing Fonseca’s body. She only contacted authorities after the smell became unbearable and her son noticed maggots crawling through the house. By then, police say, she had burned the couch where the killing took place in an attempt to mask the odor and destroy evidence. Initially, the case was closed for lack of proof. But Fonseca’s daughter pushed for it to be reopened — a move that, months later, would expose what police now describe as a disturbing pattern of serial killings.
She Tested Poison On Local Dogs
As investigators revisited the crime, they uncovered links between Fernandes and several other deaths across São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Detectives say she confessed to testing poisons on at least ten dogs before using them on people. Her alleged human victims are identified as Fonseca, Maria Aparecida Rodrigues, Hayder Mhazres, and Neil Correa de Silva.
She May Have Carried Out Killings For Hire
Police believe Fernandes used poison in food and drink, targeting people she wanted to harm or profit from. In one case, investigators allege she was paid about 540 pounds — roughly 1,100 U.S. dollars — by a woman named Michele Paiva de Queiroz to kill her own father, Neil Correa de Silva, in Duque de Caxias. “She is extremely manipulative,” said Police Chief Halisson Ideiao, who is leading the investigation. “She takes pleasure in killing. Her motivation doesn’t really matter — she wants to kill.”
She Loves Crime
Ideiao said Fernandes showed “coldness, a lack of remorse, and a clear pleasure not only in committing the crime, but in remaining around it — in witnessing the impact of what she did.” He added that she would “certainly attempt to kill others again” if released. Authorities say Fernandes has been placed in preventive detention while toxicology tests are conducted on the exhumed remains of her alleged victims. Investigators believe she used a combination of chemical agents commonly available online or through veterinary suppliers.
