New footage shows moment woman pretended to give water to her uncle’s CORPSE before trying to take out a loan at Brazilian bank

Bizarre surveillance footage shows a woman giving her uncle’s corpse a cup of water before trying to take out a loan from a bank in Brazil under his name.

The video, broadcast Sunday by Brazilian news magazine Fantastico, showed Erika de Souza, 42, pushing Paulo Braga, 68, into a wheelchair just before paramedics pronounced him dead last Tuesday.

The new security camera recorded De Souza standing next to Braga before she walked away to use the toilet. A bank employee could then be seen leaving her seat and walking over to support Braga’s head after it was tilted back.

De Souza, a mother of six, returned six minutes later with a cup of water, but Braga remained motionless.

She then approached the desk of another bank employee and tried to get Braga to sign the documents for the $3,250 loan, all captured in a viral video recorded by one of the employees.

De Souza could be heard on the footage saying to Braga: “Uncle, are you listening? You have to sign.’

Érika de Souza visited her uncle, Paulo Braga, several days before he was released from a medical facility and subsequently died on April 16

She then said to the cashier, “He doesn’t say anything, that’s how he is,” turned to her uncle and said, “If you’re not well, I’ll take you to the hospital.”

The bankers were alarmed by her behavior and called the police, who arrested her on the spot.

The surveillance cameras also recorded De Souza driving her uncle to an office in the bank branch and paramedics arriving before giving him CPR.

An autopsy revealed that Braga’s death was caused by “bronchoaspiration and heart failure.”

Rio de Janeiro Civil Police investigators discovered he was dead before he arrived at the bank. Paramedics noted that cadaver marks visible behind his head indicated he had been dead for two hours.

Érika de Souza holds Paulo Braga’s hand and a pen while trying to get him to sign a loan document at a bank branch in Rio de Janeiro. De Souza, a mother of six, said to her, “Uncle, are you listening? You have to sign it. I can’t draw for you

A bank employee uses her hand to support Paulo Braga’s head after it tilted back

De Souza remains arrested as part of the investigation and is charged with attempted theft by fraud and defamation of a corpse.

Authorities have been investigating whether de Souza tried to take advantage of Braga, who was hospitalized with pneumonia on April 8 and discharged on April 15.

They are also investigating whether de Souza knew she was taking her uncle’s corpse to the bank.

“She went to the bank with her uncle because she realized that he was in the last moment of his life and tried, before he died, to withdraw this money,” said Fábio Souza, head of Rio de Janeiro’s civil police , against Fantastico.

“However, before he reached the bank, he died. Yet she saw the opportunity to withdraw this money because it was the last chance she had to withdraw this money.”

Érika de Souza (pictured) was arrested by authorities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday after trying to get her late uncle, Paulo Braga, to sign a loan document at a bank while he was in a wheelchair

She told authorities she did not know Braga was unconscious until paramedics performed CPR.

“The case has barely started and a sentence already precedes a verdict,” says her lawyer Ana de Souza. “That is, she is being punished before she is even convicted, if she is going to be convicted at all.”

Érika de Souza’s son, Lucas Nunes, revealed that she was on medication and had tried to commit suicide several times.

In 2023, a psychiatrist requested hospitalization because she had become too dependent on sedatives and hypnotics.

‘She’s been through some tough times. She suffers from disorders,” Nunes said. She receives psychological and psychiatric support.’

The family claims Braga applied for the loan on March 25.

He planned to use the money to repair the house where he lived with Érika de Souza and three of her children.

“My mother raised six children. And she never had to steal or cheat anyone to do that,” Nunes added. “My mother guided her children into life, and she guided them very well, she taught us the path of study, the path of what is right.”