Pilates teacher Larissa Rodrigues had just learnt of her husband’s affair when she suddenly died of poisoning in March of this year in the Jardim Botânico neighbourhood of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
A woman allegedly poisoned to death by her husband after she had “recently discovered his affair”, police have claimed. Pilates teacher Larissa Rodrigues had just learnt of her husband’s affair when she suddenly died of poisoning in March of this year in the Jardim Botânico neighbourhood of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
Her partner, doctor Luiz Antonio Garnica, and his mother, Elizabete Arrabaça, were both arrested on suspicion of causing death by poisoning on Tuesday, May 6. According to the Civil Police, the woman with whom Garnica was in a relationship was not arrested, but is still the subject of the investigation.
Her mobile phones and those of Garnica and Arrabaça were seized in compliance with search warrants issued by the Court. A toxicology report on the victim’s body suggests the presence of lead shot.
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The police investigation is also looking to understand how the pair obtained the substance and how it was administered.
Based on the arrests and the material extracted from the phones, lead investigator Fernando Bravo hopes to clarify the motive for the crime.
He said: “We managed to find a witness who reported that the mother-in-law was looking for lead to buy, approximately 15 days before the death, so this gave us certainty that she, together with her son, killed Larissa.”
In a statement to the Civil Police, a cousin of Larissa said that during the week of International Women’s Day, at the beginning of March, the teacher found wine bottle corks with dates written on them and a box with sex toys in her husband’s car, which raised suspicions of cheating.
In the same statement, the cousin also reported that Larissa had told her about the doctor’s trip to São Paulo and that she suspected that he had not travelled alone. Larissa said that she tried to video call him, but he did not answer her.
According to police documents, days later Larissa went to the address of the woman Garnica was having an affair with and filmed her husband entering the building. According to reports, Larissa confronted her husband with the video. globo.com reports Garnica denied being with her and said Larissa was going crazy.
The cousin also told police that the week after the video, Larissa fell ill with diarrhoea and vomiting, and that she reported that her mother-in-law was making soups for her. The teacher also said that she had been administered medication by her husband.
According to Bravo, there is a suspicion that Garnica’s lover helped provide an alibi for the doctor, a theory which is still under investigation.
He added: “He went to the cinema with his lover the day before [the crime], so there are indications that he was preparing an alibi, so that’s what we’ve been reading so far.”
