Brazil cannibalism probe expands to 5 more deaths
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The trio that allegedly killed at least two women and ate parts of their bodies may have murdered another five people in northeastern Brazil, police said Thursday.
Police spokesman Carlos Leite said by telephone that investigators suspect the trio murdered four other women in the state of Pernambuco and one in neighboring Paraiba.
He said police have information indicating that the five "suffered the same fate" as the two women whose remains were discovered last week in the city of Garanhuns.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A man and two women were arrested last week for allegedly killing two women, eating parts of their bodies and using their flesh to make stuffed pastries known as empanadas that they sold to neighbors. Police hope they will show where the additional bodies are buried.
Leite declined to provide more details.
Police have identified the three as Jorge Beltrao Negromonte, his wife Isabel Cristina Pires and his mistress, Bruna Oliveira da Silva.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police inspector Wesley Fernandes said last week that they belonged to a sect that preached "the purification of the world and the reduction of its population."
Police said they found a 50-page book titled "Revelations of a Schizophrenic" that Negromonte wrote. In it, he says he hears voices and is obsessed with the killing of women.
The three allegedly lured women to their house by promising them a job as a nanny. They were tracked down after one of the arrested women used a credit card belonging to a person who disappeared last month.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police found the remains of the two women in the backyard of the suspects' house, which enraged neighbors later burned to the ground.