Man ‘spends days inside apartment with decomposing body of his girlfriend’
Police are probing the circumstances surrounding the death of Stifanie Ribeiro Firmino Silva, whose decomposing body was found underneath blankets in an apartment
Stifanie Ribeiro Firmino Silva had not been seen since last Wednesday
A man allegedly spent several days inside his apartment with the decomposing body of his girlfriend. Stifanie Ribeiro Firmino Silva, who lived in the West Region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, had not been seen since last Wednesday.
Friends raised the alarm after receiving suspicious messages from the 35-year-old’s phone that they suspected had not really been written by her. A neighbour said of Stifanie: “She knew how to differentiate between ‘obrigado’ and ‘obrigada’.
“She always wrote ‘obrigada’. Today she wrote ‘obrigado’. Her friend found it strange, asked for an audio message and warned that if she didn’t receive one, she would call the police.”
Civil Police are investigating the circumstances behind the death
‘Obrigado’ is the male form of ‘thank you’ in Portuguese; women would use ‘obrigada’. When concerned neighbours later went to check on the property, they noticed a strong smell coming from inside the apartment and contacted authorities.
Police officers arrived shortly afterwards and found Stifanie’s body underneath blankets, already in an advanced state of decomposition.
According to local outlet Itatiaia, sources estimate that her body had been decomposing for between three and five days, during which time the suspect is believed to have remained inside the apartment.
Neighbours saw a man, whom Stifanie had introduced as her boyfriend around a month earlier, leaving the apartment on Monday morning carrying several suitcases, with the moment captured on the building’s security cameras.
The resident added that the man locked the door behind him as he left the building. The same neighbour also claimed she had witnessed an argument between the couple just days before Stifanie died.
Civil Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Stifanie’s death.
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