IO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 2 — The detectives at Rio de Janeiro's homicide division are a world-weary bunch, inured to the horrors of violent crime by their daily hunting down of killers in one of the world's most dangerous cities.Posted on 12/06/2003 11:23:21 PM PST by csvset
RIO JOURNAL
By TONY SMITH
IO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 2 — The detectives at Rio de Janeiro's homicide division are a world-weary bunch, inured to the horrors of violent crime by their daily hunting down of killers in one of the world's most dangerous cities.
But the grisly assault last weekend that left Zera Todd Staheli, a 39-year-old American oil executive, dead and his wife, Michelle, 34, in a coma has shocked even the most case-hardened officers. [Michelle Staheli died of her wounds early Thursday, Reuters reported.]
According to the police chief, Álvaro Lins, the Stahelis were battered on the face and head with a sharp, heavy instrument — probably an ax or a meat cleaver — as they slept at their home in a guarded condominium in Barra de Tijuca, an affluent middle-class suburb, on Saturday night or early Sunday.
While Rio residents, or cariocas, are used to the drug gang warfare that spills out from the city's shantytowns, this killing evoked horror just as Rio is trying to clean up its image ahead of the 2007 Pan-American Games, which are to be held here.
With 50 of every 100,000 residents dying violent deaths each year, Rio has one of Brazil's highest murder rates. While approving a recent public campaign to stamp out police corruption, residents hold out little hope things will get better soon.
"I'm constantly worried by the increasing violence," said Teresa Carvalho, 40, who lives with her businessman husband and two daughters in a house in Barra, whose palm-lined, sandy beaches, sprawling malls and gated condos give it a yearning-to-be-Miami feel.
The Stahelis were found writhing in agony by one of their four children, their 10-year-old son. He had been drawn to his parents' bedroom by the beeping of their alarm clock, which was set for 6.30 a.m. to wake the family — practicing Mormons originally from Spanish Fork, Utah — to go to church.
Finding his youngest sister, aged 3, slumbering unharmed between his parents' legs — she later told the police she thought mommy and daddy were just "dirty with mud" — the boy woke his eldest sister, 13, who raised the alarm by calling a neighboring American family. The police are not releasing the children's names.
Mr. Staheli, who worked for the oil multinational Shell, was dead by the time help arrived, but his comatose wife was rushed to the Copa d'Or Hospital near Copacabana Beach.
"In my 20 years as a detective in Rio de Janeiro, I've never seen anything like this," said José Renato Torres, who was first to arrive at the murder scene on Sunday. "There are no clues, no murder weapon, and all the hypotheses look absurd."
Anxious to convince the public that the killing is not just another sign of the unraveling social fabric of this city, where million-dollar ocean-front apartments back onto favelas made out of bricks, cardboard and tin sheeting, Anthony Garotinho, the new state secretary for public security, said the police were facing "a very atypical crime."
But detectives freely acknowledge they have next to no leads.
Except for what was found on the couple's bed and the wall behind it, which was spattered up to the ceiling, no traces of blood were found in the house. Neither were there any signs of a break-in, and the couple's valuables — Mr. Staheli's gold Rolex watch and his wife's jewelry — were found untouched in a small wooden cask on a bedside table. The house's electronic gate can be opened only from within.
The family's driver and live-in maid, neither of whom were on duty over the weekend, were questioned and released by the police.
To kill both Mr. Staheli and his wife in quick succession — the children said they heard no cries — would require substantial strength and dexterity, according to Dr. Roger Ancillotti, head of Rio's legal medicine institute, who examined Mr. Staheli's body.
"It's as if some ninja had appeared by magic in the bedroom, attacked the couple and then disappeared in a puff of smoke," he said.
Because the Stahelis arrived only a little over three months ago, it is proving difficult to find people who knew them well enough to give any clues of a possible motive.
Concerned about seeming contradictions in the eldest daughter's declarations to detectives, the police want her to make a full, sworn statement before leaving the country. They will also take a full statement from the next oldest child, a boy.
Mr. Lins said the involvement of a relative could not be ruled out. "I am not accusing anybody, but as there are no signs of intrusion, there may have been some kind of a collaboration," he was quoted as saying.
The police are also questioning Mr. Staheli's colleagues at Shell, where he had recently been named vice president for natural gas and power in the southern part of South America. But oil executives dismissed the possibility that Mr. Staheli was killed for work-related reasons, citing a lack of serious political or business intrigue in the region.
Whether or not the slaying is ever solved, it has inevitably added to the cariocas' sense that crime is out of control, said Ms. Carvalho, who handed over a brand new S.U.V. at gunpoint in a carjacking earlier this year. "It's almost like criminals think it's cool these days not just to rob, but to kill and maim in the most spectacular way."
Divers searching for evidence in the lake in front of the Rio condominium where Zera Todd Staheli, 39, and his wife, Michelle, 34, were attacked
The Stahelis in an undated family photo. Mr. Staheli died after they were attacked last weekend and his wife died of her injuries Thursday.
It is clear that motives are no longer relevant in today's world. Being an American or non-Muslim is enough. Nothing more personal is required.
Concerned about seeming contradictions in the eldest daughter's declarations to detectives, the police want her to make a full, sworn statement before leaving the country.
Lizzie Borden.
His first day there he was chased across a busy main street near the beach - in the afternoon and in broad daylight - by a thug wielding a pistol.
With 50 of every 100,000 residents dying violent deaths each year, Rio has one of Brazil's highest murder rates. While approving a recent public campaign to stamp out police corruption, residents hold out little hope things will get better soon.
"I'm constantly worried by the increasing violence," said Teresa Carvalho, 40, who lives with her businessman husband and two daughters in a house in Barra, whose palm-lined, sandy beaches, sprawling malls and gated condos give it a yearning-to-be-Miami feel.
Could be just good old Hispanic culture rearing its head again.
Not Hispanic culture. Brazil's population is 50 percent black and that segment is the source of nearly all violent crime. The southern part of Brazil, which is much more European, has considered secession and might pull it off one of these days.
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