Brazilian woman brings corpse into bank to sign loan, arrested
A woman in Brazil has been arrested for attempting to defraud a bank using her deceased uncle's body. The woman named Érika de Souza Vieira allegedly brought her 68-year-old uncle, Paulo Roberto Braga, to a bank in Rio late Tuesday evening to authorize a loan of 17,000 reais ($3,250). Bank staff quickly raised the alarm due to Braga's unusually sluggish demeanor and pale skin tone.
'You need to sign,' she tells deceased uncle
Security video obtained by police appears to show Vieira instructing her uncle to sign. "Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign," she said, according to the video. "He doesn't say anything, that's just how he is," she told the teller, adding, "If you're not okay, I'm going to take you to the hospital." Her act was quickly caught when the man's head kept falling back when she stopped holding it. The corpse was later taken to a morgue.
Charges and investigation details revealed
Vieira is now facing charges of corpse desecration and attempted theft by deception, as reported by Rio's local newspaper, O Dia. Investigating officer Fábio Luiz Souza stated, "She knew he was dead. He had been dead for at least two hours." The presence of "livor mortis" on Braga's body also confirmed his deceased state. Livor mortis is a post-mortem phenomenon in which the blood settles in the lower parts of the body, causing a purplish-red discoloration of the skin.
Public reaction and legal defense
The incident has triggered widespread shock. News anchor Leilane Neubarth expressed her astonishment on GloboNews, stating, "She has gone into the bank with a cadaver and has tried to get money with a human being who is dead." However, Ana Carla de Souza Correa, Vieira's legal representative, disputed the charges against her client. The lawyer argued that the man died at the bank.
