A shocking case in Brazil has caused a stir after it was discovered that a 37-year-old woman managed to pass herself off for more than a year as an 11-year-old girl, even deceiving a family that was willing to legally adopt her.
The woman, identified as Amanda María Souza de Oliveira, arrived at a church in Joinville using the false name “Gabriele”. There she claimed that she had escaped from a home marked by abuse and that she urgently needed help.
As the months went by, a family decided to take her in. They prepared a child’s bedroom for her, celebrated her supposed 12th birthday, and began the procedures to officially make her part of the family.
To explain why she looked older than a girl, Souza claimed to suffer from autism and other medical conditions. She also maintained that during her childhood she had been forced to consume hormones, which would have altered her physical development.
According to the investigation, she changed her tone of voice, faked crying, used pacifiers, baby bottles, and children’s objects to sleep, in addition to adopting behaviors typical of a minor. She even convinced her guardians that she could not attend school because her supposedly abusive father might find her.
The deception ended when a relative recognized the woman and alerted the authorities. The Civil Police discovered that she was 37 years old and that she already had a record for similar incidents in other regions of Brazil.
She now faces charges of fraud and identity theft in a case that many users compare to the film “Orphan”, although for those who lived with her for 14 months, the story was completely real.