A couple convicted of kidnapping a 12-year-old girl and killing her after realising they had got the wrong person have been jailed for 36 years.

Tragic Vitoria Gabrielly Guimaraes Vaz vanished after leaving her home in Aracariguama in June 2018 to go rollerskating.

She was found dead with a sock in her mouth, her hands and feet bound, and her body tied to a tree in an area of woodland eight days later.

Forensic experts believe she died of asphyxiation.

Police arrested a man they had interviewed as a witness after he raised suspicions by giving several contradictory versions of events.

They then arrested a couple following a tip-off from him.

Civil Police later revealed the motive for the crime was revenge over a drug debt of BRL 7,000 (GBP 1,070).

An indebted man had told them the real target was his sister, but the crooks had snatched the wrong girl because she looked similar.

They had then killed her after realising they had the wrong girl.

Prosecutors charged bricklayer Julio Cesar Lima Ergesse and the couple over Vitoria’s murder.

Civil Police also revealed they had identified the drug debt collector who they believe ordered the kidnapping.

Odilan Alves, 36, was arrested in May 2019, convicted on two unrelated charges in November 2020, and sent to prison.

He is yet to face trial for his role in Vitoria’s death.

Lima Ergesse was sentenced to 34 years in prison, but his sentence was later reduced to 23 years and four months on appeal.

The trial of bricklayer Bruno Oliveira and his wife, Mayara Abrantes, began in November 2021.

They were given 36 years behind bars for aggravated murder, kidnapping, and concealment of a corpse, but appealed.

The Sao Paulo Court of Justice, in a decision published this month, threw out their appeal and confirmed their sentences.