Marcelo Costa de Andrade: Brazil’s most notorious serial killer

Brazil’s most notorious serial killer and religious fanatic is undoubtedly Marcelo Costa de Andrade, who in 1991 raped and murdered fourteen boys aged between 5 and 13 in the vicinity of Itaboraí, about 30 kilometers from the city of Niterói in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, so that they would go to heaven. Sometimes Marcelo also drank the blood of his victims, which earned him the nickname “The Vampire of Niterói” in the media. The gruesome series of murders shocked the entire country and triggered an intensive investigation and public debate about the causes and consequences of such brutal acts. But who was this monster? Marcelo was born on January 2, 1967, the son of poor immigrants. Marcelo’s childhood was marked by difficulties and trauma, which may have influenced his later actions. He spent most of his childhood in Rocinha, one of the largest favelas in Rio de Janeiro, located on a hillside overlooking the upscale neighborhood of So Conrado and Brazil’s most beautiful beaches. Rocinha is considered the largest slum in Rio de Janeiro, with approximately 200,000 inhabitants, where criminal gangs rule and homeless children roam the labyrinthine alleys looting. In the 1990s, citizens even hunted them down to clean up the neighborhood. As a result, four children were executed every day. Marcelo grew up in this slum, where his mother, a maid, was regularly abused by her husband. To protect Marcelo from this violent environment, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Ceará at the age of 5 after his parents separated, but there he was often beaten with belts or other objects. After a while, he had to return to Rio de Janeiro, where he was not only beaten by his mother’s new partner, but also sexually abused from the age of 10. Other relatives also sexually abused Marcelo. For a while, Marcelo attended a boys’ school, but he did not perform well academically and was teased by his classmates as “retarded.” When he was 14 years old, he was expelled from school because it only accepted boys between the ages of 6 and 14. After being expelled, Andrade began prostituting himself. Two years later, Marcelo became involved with an older man named Antônio Batista Freire, with whom he had a long-term relationship and who also took him to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Nevertheless, at the age of 17, he attempted to rape his younger 10-year-old brother, of whom he had tape recordings of him crying loudly, which aroused Marcelo. After his relationship ended, Marcelo began his series of murders and returned to his family. Marcelo left prostitution and instead began working formally to support his family financially. He attended the services of the controversial Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and watched its television broadcasts daily. The founder and bishop of this church is Edir Macedo, who established it in Rio de Janeiro in 1977 and is now considered one of Brazil’s richest entrepreneurs. The church is known for its exorcisms, which include homosexuality, as well as its protection against evil spirits and voodoo, which many people in Brazil believe in. According to Marcelo’s statements, he heard there that children would go to heaven after their death. Marcelo was convinced that by killing the boys, he would free them from their miserable lives in the slums and transport them to paradise. Marcelo’s series of murders lasted nine months and only came to light when 10-year-old Altair Medeiros de Abreu managed to escape from Marcelo. On December 11, 1997, Altair and his six-year-old brother Ivan visited the house of a neighbor who had promised them lunch. On the way, the two brothers met Marcelo, who offered them 4,000 cruzeiros if they would help him with a Catholic ritual. He led the boys to a remote beach, where he strangled Ivan and then sexually abused him. Altair was frozen with fear, obeying Marcelo’s orders and continuing to accompany him until he was finally able to escape the next day while Marcelo was distributing flyers on Copacabana Beach. Altair did not initially reveal that his brother had been killed, only telling investigators about it the next day. Marcelo did not attempt to find Altair or hide Ivan’s body; instead, he returned to the scene of the crime to move the body. The police discovered the body hours later. The subsequent autopsy revealed that Ivan had been sexually abused. Altair led investigators to Marcelo, who immediately confessed and showed no remorse. During questioning, Marcelo confessed to raping and murdering thirteen other boys. After sexually abusing and murdering the boys, Marcelo desecrated their bodies again before burying them in shallow graves. He described in detail how he first approached 11-year-old Odair José Muniz dos Santos in June 1991, promising him money to visit an imaginary aunt. He led the boy to a soccer field, where he attempted to sexually abuse him and then strangled him when he failed. According to his own statements, Marcelo ensured that the boy’s soul went to heaven by strangling him again. Shortly afterwards, Marcelo returned home for lunch and later returned to the scene of the crime, where he decapitated the boy. However, he had already committed his first crime in April 1991, when he saw a boy selling sweets on the street. He used the same story about money and religious rituals to lure the boy to a remote location, where he abused and killed him. Since then, he has been unable to refrain from committing further murders. In his second murder, of 11-year-old Anderson Gomes Goulart, he used a stone to strike the victim on the head and collect his blood in a bowl, which he later drank from. He believed that this would make him as beautiful as the boy he had killed. He often took the shorts with him as a trophy. Marcelo Costa de Andrade was finally declared mentally ill on April 26, 1993, and admitted to the Heitor Carrilho Clinic, where he has been examined annually ever since and always declared insane. Marcelo has been living there ever since, still convinced that he did nothing wrong because he does not understand the extent of his actions. To this day, the tragic events raise many questions about the social and psychological factors that contribute to the emergence of such cruelty.