Kal
29 Jan 2024
Fortaleza, Ceará (Brazil)
Decapitated
Kal was killed by a criminal gang after leaving the house to buy food.
The Civil Police of Ceará ( PC-CE ) presented a Final Report to the State Court on the death of the trans man identified as Kal, in Fortaleza, with the indictment of a suspect. According to investigations, the victim was dismembered by a criminal gang and had his body taken by a recycling cart to the place where the body was hidden, last Monday (29).
Elias Soares da Silva, 29 years old, arrested last Wednesday (31) , was indicted by the 2nd Police Station of the Department of Homicide and Personal Protection ( DHPP ) for qualified homicide (through torture), concealment of a corpse and for being part of of a criminal organization.
According to the Report, the trans man lived in the Varjota neighborhood and went to Granja Portugal, last Sunday night (28), to visit his partner. In the early hours of Monday (29), Kal had left the house with the intention of buying food, when he was approached by criminals from the region.
A friend of Kal's told the Civil Police that he was baptized by a faction from Ceará, that he did not know the area in Granja Portugal well and may have entered an area belonging to a rival faction, of Rio origin. And, "because he had exposed tattoos and was using electronic monitoring, he was an easy target," she said in testimony.
The Police Inquiry reveals that, upon being kidnapped by criminals, 'Kal' also called a friend at around 1:30 am that morning. The woman heard a man tell the victim to disconnect the call and an accomplice steal his cell phone from him. It was the young man's last cry for help.
The criminals accessed 'Kal's cell phone and saw the young man make a "three-finger" sign in videos and conversations on a social network. In the world of organized crime in Ceará the symbol represents a local faction to which the group was a rival.
The victim was taken to some location, where, in view of the images and videos published on social networks, he was tortured and killed, and his head, arms and fingers removed. After carrying out these acts, he was wrapped in a mattress and his body was thrown."
In addition to being dismembered, 'Kal's' body had 122 punctures from a piercing-cutting instrument. The body was found on Rua Teodoro de Castro, in the Granja Lisboa neighborhood, on Monday morning (29).
Civil Police investigations identified Elias Soares da Silva "as being the person who transported the victim's corpse to the dumping site, and may also have been one of the people involved in carrying out acts carrying out the homicide". The suspect was identified by witnesses, based on Photographic Recognition.
When questioned at the DHPP, Elias denied involvement in the crime and criminal faction. He also said that "he is homeless and works with recycling on the streets of the Conjunto Ceará and Granja Lisboa neighborhoods, using a cart to collect things on the streets and sell them, this being the way of his survival."
The arrest in the act of Elias da Silva was converted into preventive detention, by the State Court, after a custody hearing, last Thursday (1st). "The specific gravity of the conduct attributed to the accused is high, given the way in which the crimes were perpetrated, as there is evidence that the accused hid the corpse of a young woman who was brutally murdered and dismembered, in addition to the fact that the person being driven is being identified as a participant in this serious homicide, committed in the context of the criminal organization", considered judge Flávia Setúbal de Sousa Duarte.
