A married church minister’s son gave his lover a rear-naked choke while they were spooning and then stabbed her in the neck after discovering she was pregnant.
Antonieli Nunes Martins was killed the day after she told her lover she was pregnant in the municipality of Pimenta Bueno in the northern Brazilian state of Rondonia.
Married computer technician Gabriel Henrique Santos Souza Masioli, 28, told cops during questioning that he had been having an affair with the victim for 10 months.
He also told the police on Friday, 4th February, that he immobilised his lover, who was also his work colleague, with a rear-naked choke while they were spooning in bed.
According to the suspect, who is the son of an evangelical pastor, it was on Tuesday, 1st February, that Antonieli said she needed to speak to him urgently and in person.
He said: “She took a box from her wardrobe and inside was a baby outfit and a positive pregnancy test.”
He also said he was certain the baby was his and that Antonieli was adamant she would keep it and not hide the fact that he was the dad.
The conversation allegedly ended on good terms, however, and the two slept together. However, the following day, the suspect asked to meet the victim again.
It was at the house they were renting to meet in secret that Antonieli allegedly asked Gabriel Henrique if he would assume paternity of the baby.
He said he was in shock and asked her to give him until Friday to tell his wife and family about his infidelity and the pregnancy.
It was after this conversation that the two allegedly lied down on the bed and Gabriel Henrique put Antonieli in a rear-naked choke with they were spooning.
He allegedly said: “She was lying on my left arm, with her back to me, when out of nowhere I gave her a rear-naked choke, immobilising her with my legs as well.
“She struggled and fought against her own death.”
He said the victim appeared to pass out and that he then sat on the floor and cried. However, he later realised she was still alive and in distress.
He then went to the kitchen, where he fetched a large knife before returning to the bedroom and allegedly plunging the blade into the victim’s neck.
Afterwards, he threw the knife, mobile phone, and the box with the pregnancy test into the local river.
Over the following days, he tried to maintain the semblance of a normal life and acted as if nothing had happened.
After Antonieli failed to show up to work or answer her messages, her relatives went looking for her and found the door to the rented house unlocked on the Thursday.
They found her dead body on the bed.
The suspect presented himself at the police station in the neighbouring municipality of Rolim de Moura the following day.
He remains in preventive custody and awaits a formal charge of femicide.
