Brazil serial killer confesses to beheading
five people in ISIS-inspired murders
five people in ISIS-inspired murders
Dec 04, 2014
Jhonatan Lopes dos Santos, 23, was arrested in Sao Paulo after three decapitated bodies were found in the Brazilian city after a brutal axe attack.
Earlier in the week two more people were killed and another victim is in a serious condition in hospital following a similar attack. The suspect said he watched videos by groups such as Islamic State militants before the killings, according to authorities.
In this video, he was asked by a reporter why he had decapitated the victims.
He replied: "I don't know, I think it's because I watch a lot of war videos. I don't know."
Police chief Marcos Batalha told reporters the suspect targeted beggars and the homeless.
"(His) preference was for beggars, the homeless," he said.
Lopes de Santana had carved the number 36 - the amount of victims police say he told them he wanted to kill - into his own leg. He had also etched a drawing of the axe he is said to have used as his murder weapon into his left arm.
Police chief Marcos Batalha said: “He’s told us he got his ideas from videos of Taliban and Islamic State fighters decapitating their victims. ``
He said that if he hadn’t been caught he would have continued killing . He had used a needle to carve the number 36 on his leg.
"He told us he was committed to killing 36 people.”
Lopes de Santana’s alleged killing spree began last Saturday in Mogi das Cruzes near Sao Paulo.
He told detectives he planned to target homeless people and crack cocaine users because it was “less serious” than killing taxpayers - although one of his victims was on her way to work and another was doing keep fit when they were slain.
Police arrested him at his home after a witness gave them the numberplate of the car he had used to escape one of the crime scenes - and they found blood stains inside the vehicle during a search. Mr Batalha said:
At first he protested his innocence but then we also found clothes with traces of blood on them. He confessed to his crime and said he had committed them to avoid the lesser of two evils.
“He’s told us he wanted to kill drugs dealer and beggars. He seems to think that killing homeless people is less serious.``
His first alleged victim has been identified as a 38-year-old woman called Flavia Aparecida de Paula Honorio. A man he has confessed to burning and stabbing to death two days later has yet to be identified. Kelly Caldeira da Silva was beheaded near to a railway line on Tuesday.
The bodies of three people he is suspected of beheading, a man and two women, were found yesterday morning.
He has also been accused of trying to kill his nephew. One of the horrific decapitations was captured on grainy CCTV images.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, December 2014.
1. Lopes being brought before the media camera
2. Using a needle, Lopes carved the image of an axe onto his arm,
3. Victim Maria Aparecida do Nascimento
4. Victim Maria do Rosário Coentro
5. Victim Maria-do-Rosário-Coentro at crime scene (not sure, but I think this might be the woman in Pic 3)
6. Unidentified homeless victim.
7. Unidentified female victim.
8. An axe and knife that were found in Lopes`s residence.
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