former professional footballer was left on the doorstep of his home.
The horrified wife of Joao Rodrigo Silva Santos, 35, made the gruesome
discovery as she left the house in Rio de Janeiro for work early
yesterday morning.
The player's eyes and tongue had been cut out and his head placed
inside one of his own rucksacks, police said. Mr Santos retired from
football two years ago after a successful career playing for several
teams in Rio de Janeiro, as well as for clubs in Sweden and Honduras.
He had recently set up his own business selling health foods and
dietary supplements. Continue...
Police said today that Mr Santos is believed to have been snatched
from outside the shop he had opened in the Realengo district of Rio as
he closed up at around 7.45pm on Monday.
Witnesses said they saw several men bundling him into his car, a
Hyundai i30, and speeding off just before midnight, a spokesman said.
He was reported missing by his wife at 9pm on Monday.
Mr Santos' brother-in-law, who didn't want to be named, told Brazil's
Globo G1 website that the player's wife, Geisa Silva, 31, stayed up
all night after her husband failed to arrive home.
He said: 'Every time a car passed by she would go to see.
'She was getting ready to go to work at around 5.30am when she heard a
noise, opened the front door and saw his rucksack.
'When she opened it she discovered it contained his head.
'I did not want to look but the people who saw it said they had gouged
out his eyes and cut off his tongue,' said the horrified relative.
Neighbours living close to the crime scene reported hearing a woman
screaming: 'My God, it's Joao! It's Joao's head.'
From what I know, he didn't have any enemies and neither did his
wife,' the relative added.In a statement Mr Santos' widow said the
couple had not been subjected to any threats.
Lead murder investigator Rafael Rangel from the 14th Military Police
Battalion (BPM) in Rio, said witnesses saw armed men kidnap the
businessman. 'We believe that the people who took him knew the
family's routine,' said Rangel.
Investigators are working on the hypothesis that Mr Santos could have
been murdered by a drugs gang because of Mrs Silva's work at a
military police base in a local slum.
The Police Pacification Unit in the Morro do Sao Carlos is one of
dozens set up in Rio's favelas to retake control of the city's slums
from violent drug traffickers.
However, according to police chief Rafael Rangel, Mrs Silva worked as
a social worker in the base and didn't patrol the streets or make
arrests like other police officers.
He told Brazil's O Dia newspaper the motives of the murder are still unclear.
He said: 'Mrs Silva has no idea who would have done this. Neither she,
her husband or any other member of the family have suffered any type
of threat as far as she knows.
'There is nothing that would justify such a barbarous crime.'
Santos did not have a police record.
Later today Brazilian police said body parts dumped beside a city
river were believed to be those of Mr Santos.
The player's brother-in-law told Brazil's Globo G1 website that family
members had positively identified a torso found next to the Guandu
river in Queimados, greater Rio de Janeiro, by a birth mark on Mr
Santos' stomach.
A police spokesman said other body parts had also been found in the
area and were being DNA tested.
He said the murder bears the hallmarks of an execution by drug
gangsters, but stressed that "every line of investigation" is still
open.
The couple had been together for 11 years and were described as
'lovely' by neighbours.
'They were a happy, quiet couple,' said a neighbour, who asked not to
be identified. 'But you never know what may have motivated a crime as
stupid and as senseless as this.'
Mr Santos' played as a professional footballer between 1996 and 2005 -
during which he scored 33 goals in 103 matches as a striker.
Nicknamed Humble Hero, he was signed to a number of second division
teams. He also played abroad for Swedish Club Oster Vaxjo and Olimpia
in Honduras.
A recent United Nations report into drug trafficking-related crime in
Brazil found that more than half of the homicides, robberies and
thefts have a direct or indirect link with this criminal activity.
Culled from UK Daily Mail
No comments:
Post a Comment