An abusive husband accused of forcing his wife and daughter to dig their own graves before killing them and burying them under a patio has been caught and reportedly confessed to the murders.

Fabricio Buim Arena Belinato, 36, was apprehended in the Brazilian municipality of Campo Grande, roughly seven and a half hours away by car from the municipality of Pompeia, where the crime took place in November last year.

He was transferred to a police station in the municipality of Marilia, close to the crime scene, on 9th February, after being caught a day earlier. He spent the night there and will be further questioned today (10th February).

According to the police officer leading the investigation, Claudio Anunciato Filho, the suspect confessed to stabbing his wife, Cristiane Pedroso dos Santos Arena, and asphyxiating his nine-year-old stepdaughter, Karoline Vitoria dos Santos Guimaraes.

He is also suspected of sexually abusing the woman’s teenage daughter.

He has, however, denied it was premeditated, saying he killed his wife in self-defence and then strangled his younger stepdaughter.

Police are investigating the role of the teenage daughter, who survived after she told investigators her mother had run off with another man and taken her younger sister with them.

The suspect had been on the run since the victims’ decomposing bodies were found under the patio, which the police broke up using a digger on 2nd February.

Neighbours of the family reportedly said they had seen the victims digging their own graves.

The police had been criticised because they had interviewed the suspect in November last year, following the victims’ disappearance, but had not ordered his detention, allowing him to go on the run.

While investigating the victims’ disappearance, the police later found that the suspect was handling the woman’s bank account. She had recently been fired from her job and had received a redundancy payout that he is believed to have appropriated.

The mother and daughter were buried at the Pompeia Cemetery on 3rd February. According to their death certificates, Cristiane died of acute haemorrhage and Karoline of head trauma.

The arrested man is facing two counts of murder, concealment of a corpse and statutory rape, as he is believed to have sexually abused his eldest stepdaughter.

The investigation continues.

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