Brazilian man arrested for murdering his 15yr old girlfriend

A 56-year-old man named Gilson Cruz has been arrested for allegedly murdering his 15-year-old girlfriend, Maria Dos Santos, during an argument at his home on Sunday, July 14.

It was reported that Cruz fled the state of Paraiba but was tracked down and arrested 187 miles away in Caruaru, a city in the neighboring state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Authorities utilized traffic cameras to follow his vehicle’s movements.

According to Paraiba Civil Police detective Savio Siqueira, both Cruz and Maria were drinking when Cruz shot her multiple times. Siqueira stated, “He shot more than once. He made sure he actually hit her in a way that there was no way she could survive.”

Maria’s mother, Maria Lucia Dos Santos, revealed that her daughter first met Cruz two years ago when he hired her to work in his bakery. She discovered Cruz had been having an affair with Maria and had moved her into his home. The family was aware of Cruz physically abusing Maria and had previously reported it to the police, but the authorities did not have any incident reports on file.

Brazilian news outlet G1 shared an audio clip of Maria sent to her mother before her death, in which she described Cruz’s abuse, including an incident where he hit her in the face with a gun, causing her to need stitches. In the audio clip, Maria said, “He’s tried to do a lot of things to me, right? Like, he threw a gun at my face, blew my head off, then I had to go to the emergency room and get stitches, a lot of things. But I never had the courage to report him. Like, you know, the courage to hurt him and my parents, you know?”

Maria’s mother was planning to travel from her home in Sao Paulo to rescue her daughter from Cruz. She stated, “She wanted to get out. She tried. She studied at one school all day, and then went to another. And she couldn’t, because he was messing everything up. There were times when she couldn’t talk because she was afraid; I could tell she was afraid during the phone call.”

Maria’s mother also recounted Cruz’s disrespectful behavior, saying, “He didn’t respect me. He would make video calls so I could see him with her in bed, and then I would hang up. She said he was the one who forced me to see all of this. He did this to destroy us.”