A crime that silenced a key figure in the Republic’s underworld reached the courts after 17 years and was closed in the judicial sphere after 22 years in Brazilian political history.
In the early hours of June 23, 1996, businessman Paulo César Farias and his then-girlfriend Suzana Marcolino in bed in a house on Guaxuma beach, in . Since then, the case has been the subject of successive examinations, led to disputes between experts and an investigation was cancelled.
The episode turns 30 this Tuesday (23) with the legal process closed under the thesis of double homicide, no person punished and the memory surrounding its characters in dispute.
A businessman with free movement in the country’s political and economic circles, PC Farias was one of the most influential men in Mello’s government, a politician with a meteoric career who became President at the age of 40 in the first election for the position after redemocratization.
PC was treasurer of Collor’s campaign in 1989, maintained influence during the government and became a central character in the corruption scandals that led to Collor’s impeachment in 1992. The short, bald man from Alagoas with a large mustache would come out of the shadows to gain the spotlight.
From 1992 to 1996, PC Farias was the target of investigations, responded to legal proceedings and was arrested at a luxury hotel in Thailand, months after his arrest was ordered. When he was killed, he was on parole and was going to give new statements to the Empreiteiras CPI.
PC Farias and Suzana Marcolino had been dating for around a year and four months when they were found dead in June 1996. He was 50 years old and she was 28.
“Imagine going to sleep and waking up to the impact of a hurricane destroying everything around you and in your deepest structure. That’s how Suzana Marcolino’s family woke up that day of her murder and life has never been the same for us again”, says journalist Ana Luiza Marcolino, Suzana’s sister.
The one from Alagoas immediately maintained the existence of a crime of passion – Suzana had murdered PC with a shot in the chest and committed suicide. The thesis was endorsed by a report from the coroner Fortunato Badan Palhares, but the conclusion would be questioned in the year following the crime.
A new police report, , showed that Suzana was smaller than the 1.67m used as a reference in the investigation. She would be between 1.53 m and 1.57 m, which would not place her in the trajectory of the bullet that was supposedly fired at you. The revelation changed the direction of the investigation.
In 1999, the original investigation was reopened, and new examinations carried out by expert George Sanginetti indicated that both PC Farias and Suzana had been murdered. A report from the Alagoas Scientific Police showed signs of a fight at the residence.
The version war lasted more than a decade. The then federal deputy Augusto Farias, brother of PC Farias, was even indicted on suspicion of participation in the deaths due to property disputes. The investigation was closed by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) in 2002 due to lack of evidence.
The trial would only take place in 2013, when the four security guards who worked at the house on Guaxuma beach on the night of the crime went to the dock. He maintained that the security guards had a legal duty to prevent the crime and failed in that role.
In the jury, the thesis of double homicide, which recognized that Suzana did not kill PC Farias nor committed suicide. However, the jury decided to acquit the four accused out of mercy, without clarifying who had committed the crime.
The Prosecutor’s Office alleged irregularities in the trial, including threats to a juror’s family members, breach of incommunicado terms between members of the sentencing council, in addition to a decision contrary to the evidence in the case file.
At the time, there was no possibility of appealing against the decision on the merits. Only in October 2024 did the STF decide that it is possible to appeal the decision of the popular jury that acquits a defendant without any justification and contrary to the evidence in the case.
The process was definitively closed in April 2019, when the last appeal to reverse the decision that cleared the accused of the crime was denied.
“There was a feeling of disappointment with the jurors’ decision. But it was also a huge learning experience for all of us, who learned from our mistakes. Today we are trying to ensure that a case like this doesn’t happen again,” says prosecutor Marcus Mousinho, who served on the jury’s bench.
He points out the failure to preserve the crime scene as crucial to the difficulties in elucidating the case. “Fortunately, today we have a different scenario, with delegates who are more prepared and far from the political scene”, he assesses.
The closure of the investigations and the judicial process without anyone to blame for the deaths of PC and Suzana keeps the memory surrounding the case in dispute.
In the documentary “Morcego Negro”, released in 2023, businessman Augusto Farias states that his brother died murdered by his then-girlfriend in the midst of a “relationship in deconstruction”.
Suzana Marcolino’s family remembers that the same jury that closed the case without punishment also exempted her from the murder charge.
“Despite the timeline already marking 30 years of this tragedy, we are forced to continue watching Suzana’s dehumanization, that is what hurts the most”, says Ana Luiz Marcolino, who currently gives lectures on emotional education for women.
Three decades later, the case continues to provoke debates in the police and legal circles, and arousing the interest of Brazilians as they look into the Collor years and their characters.
In addition to the documentary “Morcego Negro”, by Chaim Litewski and Cleisson Vidal, one is being produced by the screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani and the producers and Marcos Prado, some of the main names behind “Tropa de Elite”.
A central figure in the web of scandals of his short government, Fernando Collor de Mello was convicted of receiving bribes from a scheme at BR Distribuidora, a former subsidiary of Petrobras. He is serving his sentence under house arrest and denies the charges.
