In 2015, 7-year-old Beatriz Mota left her sister’s graduation at her school to get a drink of water and never came back. Forty-one minutes later, she was found murdered with 42 stab wounds in an abandoned storage room on the premises, still with the knife stuck in her abdomen.
For six years, the case was marked by police errors and uncertainty. Although there was evidence, the attacker was only identified six years later thanks to a delayed DNA comparison. During that time, her family denounced neglect in the investigation, hired private experts, and even walked 700 kilometers in protest to demand justice.
The pressure managed to reactivate the case and led to the identification of Marcelo da Silva, who confessed that he had entered the place to steal and killed the girl when she began to scream upon seeing the knife. The crime shocked Brazil for its brutality and for the family’s long struggle to solve it.