Police investigate potential link between murders of gays in Brazil’s Paraná state

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a little over a week, two gay men were similarly murdered in Curitiba, capital of Paraná. Medical student Marcos Vinício Bozzana da Fonseca, 25, was found dead on May 5, and nurse David Levísio, 30, on April 30. Both lived alone and were found in their apartments, tied up, with signs of torture and suffocation. They did not know each other. The police are working with the assumption of hate crimes against homosexuals committed by the same person.

Marcos Vinício was from Campo Grande (MS) and moved to Curitiba in 2017 to study medicine. Friends found his absence strange and asked a locksmith to help them enter the apartment in the Portão neighborhood. The body was covered with a blanket and had signs of torture and asphyxiation. Nurse David Levisio was found with his hands tied, face down, and showing signs of violence. He had not been seen for three days and friends decided to go to his apartment in the Lindoia neighborhood.

The victims’ sexual orientation was confirmed by human rights non-governmental organizations. “We are monitoring these cases and others that have similar features. Our legal and public security department received information that the investigation is advanced. There is some evidence that it was a crime of LGBTI phobia due to the level of cruelty with which the victims were attacked and the conversations that the police had access to through the apps,” said Toni Reis, president of the LGBTI+ National Alliance.

According to Reis, the investigation suggests that the perpetrator or perpetrators of the crimes met the victims through social networking apps, with meetings at their apartments. For the Alliance’s legal prosecutor, Marcel Jeronymo, the suspicion is that the same man arranged the meetings and murdered the two victims. “There are many indications showing that the cases are connected. They were young singles, from other cities, who lived alone in Curitiba. The way they were killed is very similar,” he said.

The president of the Alliance sees a connection between these crimes and two other recent deaths of homosexuals: the young militant of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) Lindolfo Kosmaski, 25, in São João do Triunfo, also in Paraná, and university professor Robson Paim, 36, in Abelardo (SC).

Lindolfo was found dead in his car on May 1, on the side of a highway. “He was murdered in a cruel way, with evidence of gunshots and his body charred. Our friend is another victim of a hate crime for being LGBT,” the MST said in a statement. Professor Paim was found dead on April 17, in one of the rooms of the house where he lived. He had his car stolen by the perpetrator, which led the police to register the case as a robbery. The vehicle was found days later in Almirante Tamandaré, 15 km from Curitiba.

Due to the sequence of violent killings of gays, the LGBTI+ National Alliance launched a manual to fight against lgbtiphobic violence, based on the guidelines of the Bahia Gay Group. Among the 11 tips are caution with dating on apps and with fake gay men and male escorts. In the case of Lindolfo, three people were arrested, suspected of involvement in the crime. According to data from the Bahia Gay Group, 312 people died of lgtbiphobia in Paraná between 1975 and this year. There were 83 deaths in the past five years.

Reis recalled that the lgbtiphobia increased during the illness and death of actor and comedian Paulo Gustavo, victim of Covid-19. Alongside the great current for his health, there were some wishing his death because he was homosexual. “Inquiries were opened against a pastor from Alagoas and another one from Goiás, as well as a city councilor from the interior of Paraná State, because they are promoting lgbtiphobia. We are not accusing the pastors and this city councilor of the murders, but they are sharpening the knife that killed the homosexuals in Curitiba. When you engage in hate speech you dehumanize people. We are working with the Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Security Secretariat (of Paraná) so that the cases may soon be solved.”

The Public Safety Secretariat of Paraná said that the cases are being investigated by the 3rd Precinct of the Homicide and Personal Protection Division (DHPP) of Curitiba. Information about the progress of the case is not being released to prevent harming the investigation.