Daniel Correa: São Paulo player "certainly" tortured before death

São Paulo midfielder Daniel Correa was “certainly” tortured before being killed after attending a party last week, the lead investigator in the case, Amadeu Trevisan, said. 

Speaking after the discovery of the 24-year-old’s body in a wooded area in Sao José dos Pinhais a week ago, Trevisan said that the events leading up to the player’s death were “completely disproportionate.” Correa was found almost decapitated and with his genitals cut off. 

“It was utterly excessive on the part of the perpetrator of the crime regardless of whether [Daniel] had been intimately involved with his wife, which is something we do not yet know,” Trevisan told a press conference. “It was completely disproportionate. There was no need to have killed him and much less so in this barbaric and cruel fashion.” 

Police investigating the matter subsequently arrested Edson Brittes Júnior, his wife, Cristiana, and their daughter Allana on suspicion of Correa’s murder. The player had been invited to a party to celebrate Allan’s 18^th birthday and was, according to police reports, “surprised in bed” with Brittes’ wife later that night. Brittes, speaking to Brazilian television, gave his version of events and claimed that Correa had been attempting to rape his wife when he walked into a bedroom at the family home in Sao José dos Pinhais, a suburb of Curitiba in southern Brazil. 

Correa "received blow" and was put in the boot of a car

While investigators have made no comment on the events leading up to Correa’s death while they look into Brittes’ claims, police sources have confirmed that he received “a blow to the head” while still in the house and was then put in the boot of a car and driven to the eventual crime scene. 

Trevisan confirmed that he was seeking up to three further people who entered the house with Brittes, whose wife and daughter have been detained for a maximum of 30 days for questioning. The police chief stated that they had “been at the crime scene the entire time and may have provided some form of assistance.”

The investigation is ongoing and the police are also seeking to interrogate everybody who was in the house at the time. Correa and up to 12 others, including the three suspects, went to the Brittes residence after the party, which took place in Curitiba. 

“We are seeking these three people because [Brittes] did not act alone,” said Trevisan. “It is certain there were others who participated in the crime.”