In Samambaia, Brazil, lesbians Rosana da Silva Candido and Kacyla Damasceno Pessoa were arrested after kids caught them trying to dispose of suitcases containing the mutilated body parts of a nine-year-old boy who had been missing for five years. The kids who spotted the duo called the police and Candido and Pessoa were promptly arrested where they confessed to killing the nine-year-old boy. This took place a year after they cut off his genitals in an attempt to turn him into a little girl.

The story made its way to U.S., readers via the Political Bullpen, but the grisly details were first publicly aired across Brazilian media.

It started five years ago when Candido took flight with her son Rhuan Maicon da Silva Castro after her husband Maycon Douglas Lima de Castro had separated from her when he found out that Candido had an affair with another woman named Kacyla Damasceno Pessoa, whom she met while attending church.

The reason Candido took flight was because Castro went to the federal district court to gain partial custody of his son Rhuan back in November, 2015, according to a report by UOL on June 3rd, 2019. Instead of having over Rhuan to his father, Candido went on the run with her son and her lover Pessoa.

The protective services never followed through with returning Rhuan to his father, and so Candido and Pessoa traveled around, attempting to keep the boy away from his father.

Pessoa also had an eight-year-old daughter who was traveling with them, where the two lesbians convinced the little girl that all men were bad. She, too, had been kept from her father, Rodrigo Oliveira. The concerned father had been attempting to see his daughter for five years and even went to the district court to receive custody, but nothing came of it until after the incident with Rhuan transpired, according to a report from Correio.

In 2018, in the Brazilian city of Goiânia, located in the state of Goiás, Candido and Pessoa attempted to turn Rhuan trans by cutting off his penis. Counselor Claudia Regina Carvalho told the Brazilian outlet UOL…

“It was kind of a sex-change surgery. After removing the penis, they sewed the mutilated region and improvised a version of a female genital organ, making a cut in the groin.”

But it was on the fateful evening of May 31st, 2019 that Rhuan Maicon da Silva Castro would finally meet his end after enduring a painful year of having his genitals cut off in a makeshift attempt to transition him into a little girl by Candido and Pessoa.

Aspects of his murder were discussed in the video testimonies that were uploaded to YouTube by Metropolis DF on June 1st, 2019, a day after the murder occurred and the two women had been arrested. Pessoa also explains her daughter’s reactions to acts that were being committed to her half-brother.

As for the actual murder… the two women waited until Rhuan was sleep where they proceeded to drive a knife deep into his chest, killing him.

[Correction: According to a story published on June 11th, 2019 on Renova Media, the police report that Rhuan was still alive when he was stabbed, and was stabbed a total of 12 times. The report also indicates that he was still alive as he was being beheaded.]

They then decapitated him and attempted to burn the body on the barbecue grill to dispose of the remains. The smell was so foul, however, that the stench awoke Pessoa’s daughter, where she partially witnessed the women quartering Rhuan’s body and stuffing segments of his severed parts into suitcases and backpacks.

Neighbors claim they didn’t hear the noise nor smell the burning flesh because they were having a party and barbecuing as well, so the music drowned out the homicide and the barbecue masked the smell of Rhuan’s mutilated remains being torched on the grill.

After chopping the nine-year-old up, Candido proceeded to take her son’s parts to a sewer and dump them there. Children playing football in a nearby field saw the woman attempting to dispose of the body, and asked her what was in the bags; she said it was “old clothes” according to the reports.

Once the suitcases and backpacks had been disposed of, the kids from the football field went to check the dumping ground to see if there were any valuables in the suitcase that they could pilfer. However, when one of the boys went over to examine the goods by opening up the bag, Rhuan’s severed head rolled out of the suitcase with the studded knife lodged in it, prompting the kids to call the police.

According to a report on Metropoles that was published on June 4th, 2019, they’re unsure of the motivation behind the killing, some believing that it was money related and that since they were running out of funds they wanted to kill the boy to save cash. They also shopped around the conspiracy that it was religious related, but the evidence was very thin to support that claim. The last theory was that they killed the boy as a way to get back at the father, claiming that it was for mistreatment that they suffered by the extended family.

Regardless of the reasons behind the murder, the counselors and some members of family committees were appalled and aghast at the details of the murder.

The Guardianship Council told Correio that they had never received complaints about the kids because they were kept in a “private jail” and didn’t attend school.

Damares Alves, the Minister of the Women, Family and Human Rights committee, posted a video on Twitter on June 3rd, 2019 expressing how “shocked” she was at how the system had failed Rhuan.

Saí agora do Conselho Tutelar de Samambaia Norte (DF), onde acompanhei o caso do menino que foi assassinado pela mãe e a companheira. Quero saber onde a rede de proteção falhou. Estou chocada. Ao menos ouvi boas ideias dos conselheiros e vi que precisamos mudar muita coisa. pic.twitter.com/iyWixyQsBv — Damares Alves (@DamaresAlves) June 3, 2019

Para quem ainda não conhece o caso, segue o link:https://t.co/g6XOeK0W4V — Damares Alves (@DamaresAlves) June 3, 2019

Rhuan’s body has been taken back to Acre, Brazil where he will be buried. The burial costs are reportedly being covered by the prosecutor’s office.

(Thanks for the news tip Wondy Bergers)