Investigators have concluded that this young fashion designer, who was found dead in her bedroom with a plastic bag over her head and her hands tied, was killed by her housemate.

Thalissa Nunes Dourado was found dead in her home in the neighbourhood of Cabore, in the municipality of Paraty, in the south-eastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, on 5th November last year.

And now, investigators have concluded that the female ‘friend’ who lived with Thalissa and who ‘found’ her body was, in fact, the person responsible for her untimely death – at the age of just 27.

The police say that security camera footage shows that travel agent Vivian dos Santos Lima Tiburtino was the only other person at the scene of the crime at the time.

Tiburtino was not taken into preventive custody at the time but had her passport confiscated and was forbidden from leaving Paraty. She was also ordered to check in with the local court fortnightly.

The post-mortem concluded that Thalissa suffered a violent death – from pulmonary congestion via mechanical asphyxia. Investigators believe that Thalissa was killed between 4am and 6am on the same day the body was found.

She had only been living with Tiburtino for around four months. The possible motive for the crime was not divulged.

The victim’s mother, 47-year-old Adriana Nunes Dourado, was quoted in local reports as saying: “My loss is irreparable and will be eternal and prison will not alleviate my sadness at all.

“But I understand justice must be served in order to close this cycle and to honour the image of my daughter, a young woman full of life, talented, intelligent and so loved by family and friends.”

Tiburtino, when first questioned by police, denied her guilt and implied that Thalissa took her own life – a possibility they have since discarded. She has been charged with aggravated murder and the investigation into the incident is still ongoing.