Shocked medics discovered the body of this woman had been drained of blood in a macabre ritual allegedly carried out by her public prosecutor husband, who is believed to be her killer.

Lorenza Maria Silva de Pinho, aged 41, was killed inside the apartment she shared with 51-year-old Andre Luiz de Pinho, her husband and the father of her five children, on 2nd April.

The cause of death was given as “asphyxia, sharp-force trauma and poisoning” with the latter believed to have been a morphine overdose.

But worryingly, medics also found that her body had been almost completely drained of blood, and it was a struggle even to get 25 millilitres (0.88 imp fl oz) of blood from the body to perform the drugs and alcohol tests.

Coroner Marcelo Mares Castro said: “A normal woman of normal weight has on average five to five and a half litres (8.8-9.7 imp pt) of blood in her body.”

The victim’s husband, who is a public prosecutor, was arrested in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, where the family lived, and taken into preventive custody shortly after the crime.

As police looked for a motive for the fact that her body had been drained of blood, they discovered two contacts linking to embalming courses in the suspect’s diary, although he denied that he had ever attended such a course.

The police are also investigating whether the couple frequented a place where “activities of a religious nature” were practised, and the suspect is believed to have links to “occultism”.

Pinho had already been on suspension by the Public Prosecutor’s Office due to an unspecified, years-old disciplinary proceeding.

He faces charges of femicide, which could see him get anything between 12 and 30 years.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office believes the motive for the crime was that his wife “had become a burden for him”.

Due to alcohol and medication problems and severe depression, the victim would not have been “fulfilling the role of wife and mother” expected by her husband.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office also revealed the couple were experiencing “financial problems” and that the victim suspected her husband of being unfaithful.

The investigation continues.