The Child Who Was Buried Alive By Her Own Mother
In March of 2020, 10-year-old Gabrielly Magalhães was reported missing. Soon later, her mother called the police and confessed to murdering the girl.
Gabrielly Magalhães de Souza had an unsettled childhood. At the tender age of 10, she had been sexually abused by her stepfather and was afraid of her mother. The day she decided to face her fear and tell her mom about the abuse was the day her worst nightmare came true.
On the 21st of March, when the girl told her 30-year-old mother about being molested, she received no kind of emotional support in return. Instead, Emileide became aggressive towards her daughter.
In a fit of rage, Emileide forced Gabrielly and the girl’s 13-year-old brother, whose name has not been published, to get into her car. She then drove to a remote wooded area in the small town of Brasilândia, Mato Grosso do Sul, where they lived. According to the boy, he thought Emileide would beat his sister up. In fact, his sister would be murdered.
The Murder
Once there, they got out of the car and walked into the woods. At a certain point, they found a hole in the ground. Emileide then pushed Gabrielly to the ground and began strangling her with an electric wire, just before burying her alive upside down in that same hole with the help of her son. Later, when questioned by the police about how he knew she was alive, Gabrielly’s brother answered that she was yelling out for help inside the hole. She was left to die with only her feet out of the grave while begging for her life.
After fleeing the scene, Emileide allegedly dropped her son off at the town square and drove herself to a bar to have a beer, not sure whether her daughter was already dead. This prompted her to return to the crime scene twice that day. The first time, the girl was still alive; the second, she had already passed.
The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was compressive asphyxia. It was also reported that her body was riddled with several bruises which may indicate that she was tortured.
The Confession & Apprehension
At approximately 9:20 p.m. that Saturday, Emileide headed to the local police station and filed a missing person’s report. She calmly stated that her daughter had vanished from the public square where she was supposedly dropped off with her brother earlier that day.
Around midnight, Emileide called the cops and turned herself in. She then claimed that she had dropped her son off at the square before taking Gabrielly to the location where she would be killed — once again, she lied. Her lack of remorse as to her daughter’s death was noticeable; however, she expressed concern for her husband. According to Brasilândia’s police chief Thiago Passos, it is clear that she committed the crime out of jealousy and fear that her husband would be arrested.
The next day, March 22, the thirteen-year-old child accompanied his mom to the police station, and as soon as the officers noticed he had scratches on his legs, he became a suspect. Therefore, he decided to tell the truth.
The boy at first confessed to having participated in the murder of his little sister and told investigators where the electric wire was dumped. However, in a new statement, he added that he was forced to participate so as not to end up having the same fate as his sister. Moreover, he recalled being threatened with a tire iron. “She (Emileide) said that he was already involved in the act, and (he) ended up staying at the location, witnessing the atrocities,” stated the boy’s attorney.
He recalled that Emileide got enraged after his sister told her about the sexual abuse she had been suffering at the hands of their stepfather, later identified as 47-year-old André Luiz Ferreira, who was allegedly sleeping at home when Emileide went out with her children. Ferreira denied the abuse, but confessed to having spent some time alone with Gabrielly on another occasion. The victim’s brother, on the other hand, confirmed that she was frequently sexually assaulted.
Emileide Magalhães was sent to Três Lagoas Women’s Penitentiary, 65km (40 miles) from Brasilândia, while André Luiz Ferreira was taken to Bataguassu Prison. The boy had first been sent to a socio-educational detention center, but he got released after his last statement and is now under the care of his biological father.
