New Delhi: The body of a Brazilian actor who was missing since January this year has been found stuffed inside a wooden trunk buried six feet under the ground in the outhouse of a rented property in the Campo Grande neighbourhood of western Rio de Janeiro.
Forty-four-year-old Jefferson Machado was reported missing 27 January by people close to him after a non-governmental agency contacted them and said his eight dogs were left abandoned at his Rio de Janeiro home, according to reports in Brazilian media.
Machado reportedly knew the tenant who is now the prime suspect, they said. However, the tenant has yet to be publicly identified.
Following the recovery of Machado’s body Monday, the Rio de Janeiro State Civil Police released footage Wednesday of nine people, including seven civil police officers, working together to remove the heavy trunk, which Machado’s family lawyer confirmed belonged to the actor. Forensic workers identified the body with the help of fingerprints.
An autopsy conducted Thursday could not detect the cause of Machado’s death because the body was decomposed. For this reason, it could not be flown to his home state of Santa Catarina reportedly due to airline security measures and will now be taken there by car.
Machado’s family friend Cintia Hilsendeger posted a message on the actor’s Instagram page, confirming his death. “It is with great sadness we report that Jeff was found on 05/22/2023 lifeless (sic),” she wrote.
In a statement on Facebook, the Machado family attorney Jairo Magalhae Pereira confirmed the actor’s death and said he was “on a mission to keep a close eye on investigations”.
“Preliminary information indicates that the actor’s body was found in a trunk, buried in a hole of considerable depth. This situation deeply saddens us and indignant in the face of the suffering faced by Jeff (sic),” he wrote.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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