The killer is alleged to have shot Bruna Zucco Segatin alongside her 30-year-old boyfriend Valdir de Brito Feitosa in 2018 and went on to tattoo her face onto his arm
A hitman who shot dead a beauty queen was arrested by police after they identified him via a gruesome tattoo of her burned face on his arm. The killer, not named by local media in Altonia, in the state of Parana, Brazil, was seized on June 7 after seven years on the run.
Victim Bruna Zucco Segatin, 21, was found shot dead alongside her 30-year-old boyfriend Valdir de Brito Feitosa in the back of a burned out pick-up truck in 2018. Bruna’s face had been hideously disfigured by the flames. But police believe that Feitosa was the main target and the former Miss Altonia just happened to be with him.
Officers say they seized the gunman after linking the killings to local drugs and contraband trafficking rivals. Police photos show the suspected killer had inked a grim souvenir of Bruna’s execution with a new tattoo of a woman’s head engulfed in flames on his left hand.
Police chief Reginaldo Caetano said: “The tattoo on the suspect depicts a woman with part of her face on fire. Bruna’s body was located burned and charred in the back of a pick-up truck.”
The 39-year-old trafficking boss, named only as A.D.S., said to have ordered the execution was arrested earlier this month with two other suspects.
Their identities have not been released by Brazilian law enforcement. According to local reports, police used explosives in order to enter the location where the main suspect was holed up.
A recent report by UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime found some 85,000 women and girls were intentionally killed by men in 2023. It was estimated that 60 per cent of these deaths were committed by someone close to the victim.
Earlier this year two sisters were shot dead on a beach in front of their horrified friends as attackers fled the scene. Maria Beatriz dos Santos, 20, and Bianca dos Santos, 15, had been with their friends in Brazil on May 1.
They were standing by the edge of the beach when a group of men stormed the area and gunned down the pair. The gang members then fled the scene on jet skis, according to reports.
Maria died at the beach while Bianca was raced to a nearby hospital. Despite the medics’ best efforts, she died from her injuries.
Police started investigating the shooting and determined it was carried out by members of the Red Command, a Brazilian criminal organisation. It remains unclear what the motive was behind the shooting.