Amanda Maria Sousa Oliveira arrived at a church in Joinville, Brazil, with a heartbreaking story: 12 years old, having escaped abuse in the north of the country, alone. The congregation welcomed her with open arms and connected her with a family willing to take her in. What no one knew was that Amanda was 37 years old. 😶
For 14 months she lived with them as if she were a child. She drank from a baby bottle, imitated a minor’s voice, was given a birthday party, and the couple paid for her medications, including a drug for diabetes in adults. When they noticed that her appearance seemed too old, she had an answer ready: forced hormone treatments in childhood and years of abuse had aged her prematurely. The family believed her.
It was a relative who began to suspect something, searched her name on the internet, and found reports of identical cases in other states. Police confirmed that she had operated in at least seven Brazilian states using the same tactic. The most disturbing detail: to make her story of abuse believable, she had inserted up to 100 needles into her body. X-rays showed that she still had more than 100 inside. 😳
