This is the young woman that prosecutors have charged with killing her boyfriend using a hookah needle during a pointless argument over a samosa.
A hookah is a water pipe used for smoking tobacco and the needles are used to poke holes in the foil on top of the hookah bowl so that heat can be transferred from the hookah coals to the shisha tobacco.
But the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Goias, Brazil, which has recently indicted Nicole Maria Ferreira da Costa, 20, for homicide, says she used the needle to kill her boyfriend.
According to the police, the young woman confessed to using the hookah needle during a trivial argument over a ‘pastel’, a typical Brazilian fast-food dish that is like a samosa, in the municipality of Aparecida de Goiania.
Adailton Gomes de Abreu Sousa, 24, died at his girlfriend’s house on 18th September last year. Earlier in the day, he had gone out with her and two of his sisters to a food market.
According to the investigation, the couple started arguing over a pastel, and the argument continued when they went back to Costa’s house, where she allegedly stabbed him in the nipple with the needle.
Adailton’s sisters, aged 13 and 16, were outside the house when the crime took place.
Investigators originally suspected Adailton had suffered a heart attack before they noticed the perforation in his nipple caused by the needle, which had pierced his heart.
Chief investigator Eduardo Rodovalho told news site G1: “He was in agony for a short time and then died.”
During questioning, Costa told the police that her boyfriend had attacked her with a broken hookah pipe and she stabbed him with the needle in self-defence before seeking help.
However, investigators ruled out the self-defence hypothesis after no injuries were found on the young woman.
They also noted that fights between the “immature” couple were commonplace.
Costa was not arrested at the time, as she cooperated fully with the police and appeared genuinely distressed at her boyfriend’s death.
Adailton was a mechanic and left behind a two-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. He and Costa had been together for around two years.
A pastel is a typical Brazilian street-food snack consisting of a thin-crust pie with one of assorted fillings, fried in vegetable oil.
It it is unclear why it was the cause of friction between the pair, and Costa is released on bail while awaiting trial.
