07 February 2025 , 18:20
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Alex Bruno Silva dos Santos, 28, and Maria Leticia Sousa da Silva, 26, were kidnapped from their home in Brazil by four men dressed as police and later found murdered.
A couple found brutally executed with gunshot wounds to their heads are feared to have been kidnapped by men pretending to be police officers.
The victims, named as Alex Bruno Silva dos Santos, 28, and Maria Leticia Sousa da Silva, 26, were found 55 miles away from their homes in Joao Pessoa in north-eastern Brazil. CCTV footage discovered by authorities showed the false police officers, wearing balaclavas and vests with "Policia" written on them, arriving at the couple’s apartment complex in two cars with flashing sirens inside. Several of the men can be seen armed with assault rifles.
The footage then moves inside where the quartet moved with a purpose towards a door at the end of the corridor. The time stamp reads around 5am, when most people will have been sleeping.
They then moved inside where they abducted the image. The Civil Police of Paraiba said a preliminary investigation showed the victims were linked to a crime in Pernambuco and were hiding out in Paraiba. The homicide is being investigated by the Civil Police of Pernambuco.
The Civil Police said in a statement it "does not recognise the suspects involved in the incident as its employees." It added the convincing looking weapons, uniforms and bulletproof vests used by the men were not official service equipment.
The investigation into the kidnapping is under the responsibility of the Organised Crime Repression Department of Paraiba (DRACO). Currently, no arrests have been reported linked to the shocking crime.
Last month footage showed a woman was last seen alive as she entered a car three days before her body was found buried wrapped inside a rug. Larissa dos Santos Silva, 25, who worked as a motorcycle driver for an app, was stabbed to death in Nova Iguacu, in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil . Her body was discovered buried at a construction site on Friday.
Larissa had been missing since Tuesday 21 January and she was last seen getting into an app taxi car to go to work. Local cops believe she was killed by her lover, Alan Santos Gusmao Junior, 26, and his wife Leandra Victoria de Souza Fortunato, 22, although their motive is not yet clear. The couple was later arrested and held on suspicion of murder and concealment of a corpse.