The death of child welfare officer Maryna Colucci de Jesus, 34, has shaken the town of Jacuí, in southern Minas Gerais state. A trans woman, she was known locally for her work with residents and her readiness to help anyone who sought her out, according to Brazilian outlet G1. Maryna went missing the previous Friday, after leaving home around 1 p.m. Her body was found buried in a rural area of the municipality on Tuesday, roughly a meter and a half underground, in a hard-to-reach spot near a rural property.
According to the Civil Police, Maryna was the victim of a femicide, the killing of a woman because of her gender. The main suspect is José Sérgio de Oliveira, a 42-year-old sergeant with the Military Police, who confessed to the crime and led investigators to the burial site. Marcos Pimenta, chief of the 18th Civil Police Department, said that over the weekend, information gathered informally from the community pointed to the possibility that Maryna had been in a relationship with the officer. He said the suspect took the team to the location where he described "a disagreement" followed by "a gunshot."
"He initially took us to a spot where he says there was a disagreement and a gunshot. Afterward, frightened, he took the body and dumped it, digging a hole in the rural area near a family property," Pimenta told G1.
Oliveira was arrested in the act for concealing a body, and the Civil Police also requested his pretrial detention for involvement in the femicide. The delegate said the crime occurred while the sergeant was off duty, not acting in his police role, meaning he will be prosecuted "as an ordinary citizen." Brazil's Military Police said it opened an administrative process to investigate the case and assess whether Oliveira will remain in the force.
Who Maryna was
Relatives describe Maryna as calm and devoted to her family. Her sister, Dalila Cristina de Jesus, told G1 that Maryna was known throughout town for her willingness to help, "in hospitals, at city hall, with the highest authorities here," and that no one would speak ill of her. Their mother, Regina Silva de Jesus, said Maryna lived with her parents, kept a close routine with the family and neither drank nor smoked. Their father, Benedito de Jesus, recalled that on the day she disappeared he was home with Maryna when she received a message on her phone and left to meet someone, saying she was going to talk with a friend.
The search for the body involved both Civil and Military Police officers and began Tuesday morning, ending that afternoon when the body was located in a hard-to-reach area along the road connecting Jacuí to Fortaleza de Minas. Delegate Marcos Pimenta said investigators are now working to resolve every remaining question about the circumstances of the killing.