Just when you think the world can’t get any worse, something else comes along and makes us question our faith in humanity even more.
On the surface, we logically think that stories that are about our friendly, elderly next-door neighbors secretly being cannibals is something that is utterly wild and only belongs in a horror movie.
But if you were to bring up the possibility to yourself, or to your friends, you can’t help but ask – what if the truth had been hidden from you the whole time?
It certainly makes you paranoid and scared about your own safety.
Luckily with these three people behind bars, you can rest a little more securely at night, knowing that there are now a little less terrifying killers out there on the loose.
Jorge Beltrao Negromonte da Silveira – a Brazilian man who was nicknamed the “Sweeney Todd” cannibal – and his wife and mistress – Isabel Pires and Bruna Cristina Oliveira respectively – have been finally pronounced as guilty in a trial that took place over the weekend.
They have each been individually sentenced to 71 years, 68 years, and 71 years respectively in prison.
Nicknamed “the cannibals of Garanhaus” after the name of the neighborhood wherein the killings had taken place, the three individuals were originally arrested in 2012 for the murder of what is at least three women – with possibly even more unknown victims.
Two of their victims were identified as Gisele Helena da Silva, aged 31, and Alexandra Falcon Silva, aged 20, according to the Brazilian news outlet, G1.
These killings had been reportedly carried out as some kind of “purification ritual.”
It has been reported that the couple-and-mistress team had initiated these murders by first luring the victims to the trio’s home under the pretense of a job offering, usually as a nanny, or to give them some kind of religious advice.
Once in the house, the victims were then slaughtered and their flesh eaten.
Pires would then use leftover flesh as stuffing to make salgados, a local meat pastry dish.
These meat pastries were then sold off to neighbors, and the victim’s remains reportedly buried in the trio’s backyard.
During the second trial, Silveira declared that his wife and himself were tortured by Silveira’s mistress, Oliveira, into doing the deed, and that the two of them were otherwise innocent.
He also claimed that he had hidden information in Oliveira’s defense, and seemed to have tried pinning the trio’s actions on her having been a witch since age 17.
Police had found a book authored by Silveria at the time of the arrests.
The book was titled “Revelations of a Schizophrenic.”
In it, Silveria confessed to being infatuated and obsessed with the idea of killing women and claimed to have heard voices.
It is unknown if this book was related to the so-called “rituals” that the cannibalistic family were performing.
The trio was originally convicted in 2014 over the murder of a woman named Jéssica Camila da Silva Pereira.
At the time, Silveira had received a sentence of 23 years, while Pires and Oliveira both received 20 years each.
