A bricklayer under arrest for strangling to death a young woman before bricking her in a wall has told cops that a pair of knickers found at the murder scene belonged to him and he liked to wear them.

Bricklayer Edmilson Verissimo da Silva, 56, and contractor Jonathas Soares de Santana, 35, are being investigated for the femicide of 25-year-old Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues and the concealment of her corpse.

She had been missing for eight days until the owner of a lot under building works in her hometown of Sao Vicente in Brazil noticed a bad smell coming from a newly-laid wall and called the police, who knocked a hole in it and found her naked body with a T-shirt tied around her neck on Tuesday, 5th October.

The two suspects were swiftly arrested, with the contractor denying any participation in the crime, but the bricklayer dobbed his colleague in as well as admitting his own guilt, according to reports.

The police believe there was a fight between the contractor and the young woman for reasons unknown that culminated in him strangling her, with his colleague subsequently joining in following his request for help.

Both men are then believed to have concreted her up in the wall under a staircase.

The bricklayer told the police he had maintained consensual sexual relations and taken drugs with the married mother of two daughters shortly before the crime. Witnesses also told the police the two had known each other for years and had been having an affair.

However, the police have not ruled out the hypothesis of sexual abuse and they are awaiting the forensic results.

On scouring the crime scene, the police seized a plastic bag containing a pair of knickers and plastic containers typically used to store cocaine.

The victim’s husband was shown the knickers and did not recognise them as belonging to his late wife. It was during questioning that the bricklayer said they were his and “he liked to wear them”, according to police chief Thiago Nemi Bonametti, who is heading the investigation.

The two men are being held in preventive custody as the investigation continues.