A woman whose father was shot dead when she was nine became a cop to avenge him and arrested the killer 25 years after the murder.
Gislayne Silva de Deus, 36, helped arrest her father’s killer Givaldo Jose Vicente de Deus, 35, who was shot at point-blank range over a £20 debt in Boa Vista, Brazil, in February 1999, according to local media. .
Wanted man Raimundo Alves Gomes, 60, had been on the run since 2016 before being arrested on September 25 in Boa Vista, the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima.
Gislayne was just a child when her father was brutally murdered and began studying law at the age of 18 to become a lawyer. She also took the police entrance exam and became an officer, once even working in a prison.
‘When I was a prison [police officer]I always imagined [the killer] arrived there to serve his sentence,” she told local media.
She later joined the police force as a clerk, where she was assigned to the General Homicide Division (DGH) and tirelessly gathered information on her father’s killer, eventually tracking him down before his arrest.
Gislayne Silva de Deus (pictured), 36, helped arrest her father’s killer Givaldo Jose Vicente de Deus, 35, who was shot at close range over a £20 debt in Boa Vista, Brazil, in February 1999, according to reports local media
Footage showed Gislayne finally coming face to face with her father’s killer at the police station after helping arrest him
Wanted man Raimundo Alves Gomes (pictured), 60, had been on the run since 2016 before being arrested on September 25 in Boa Vista, the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima.
Footage showed Gislayne finally coming face to face with her father’s killer at the police station after helping to arrest him.
Alves Gomes was found guilty of murder in 2013, but only went on the run in 2016 after an arrest warrant was issued for him, some fourteen years after he committed the crime.
The brutal murder took place on February 16, 1999 in the Asa Branca neighborhood of Boa Vista, while the victim was playing pool with a friend.
The killer turned up to collect the £20 debt, with Gislayne saying her father had owned a supermarket and the killer was one of his suppliers.
She said her father tried to pay off the debt by offering the killer a freezer, but he refused and left the venue before returning armed with a gun about 30 minutes later.
The couple got into a physical fight and her father was fatally shot. He was rushed to hospital, but died from his injuries.
Gislayne has three sisters and a brother, the youngest of whom was just two years old when their father was murdered.
The brutal murder of Givaldo Jose Vicente de Deus (pictured above with two of his children, including Gislayne, right) took place on February 16, 1999 in the Asa Branca neighborhood of the city, while the victim was playing pool with a friend.
The brutal murder took place on February 16, 1999 in the Asa Branca neighborhood of Boa Vista, while the victim was playing pool with a friend.
Ghislayne (second from left in photo) said: ‘This won’t bring our father back, but…’ [the killer] will serve the sentence he should have served many years ago.”
The killer fled the scene before being arrested by police the same day. However, he was released from police custody without bond before his trial.
Even more inexplicably, the Roraima court did not issue an arrest warrant for the murderer until three years after the conviction.
Local media said the statute of limitations for arresting murder suspects in Brazil is 20 years, meaning the police officer still had about six years to track down her father’s killer.
Alves Gomes was brought to trial on September 26 and his conviction was upheld. He was then sent to prison.
‘With his arrest I have cleansed my soul and that of my entire family. It was the end of a cycle. Today we have peace and a sense that justice has been served.”
She added, “This won’t bring our dad back, but [the killer] will serve the sentence he should have served many years ago.”