True Crime Cases in Brazil

Brazil's place in the true-crime record runs from solitary predators to killings tied to organized crime. The cases I've mapped here include Marcelo Costa de Andrade, the Vampire of Niteroi, who murdered boys near Niteroi in 1991, and Pedro Rodrigues Filho, known as Pedrinho Matador, whose victims were largely other criminals and fellow inmates.

Not every case here fits the serial-killer mold. The 2002 murder of the von Richthofen parents in Sao Paulo, orchestrated by their own teenage daughter Suzane, became one of the country's most discussed parricides. More recent entries, like the 2024 assassination of informant Vinicius Gritzbach outside Guarulhos airport, point to contract killings linked to organized groups.

Each case below was researched by hand from the public record. I've kept to what is documented: the people, the places, and what is known about what happened.