In the twelve plus years that Ive been living in Brazil there have been several cases where parents and step-parents have murdered their children, until now the most shocking was the 2008 murder of 5-year old Isabella Nardoni, who was thrown from the window of her fathers sixth floor apartment in the Santana district (North zone) of São Paulo. The childs father Alexander Nardoni and her step-mother Anna Carolina Jatobá were subsequently arrested and later convicted of the childs murder. The exact circumstances of Isabella's murder will probably never be known since both Nardoni and Jatobá still maintain their innocence in spite of overwhelming forensic evidence of their guilt and have remained silent ever since.
I thought that this was the most depraved act I've ever seen in my life, however I was absolutely wrong.
The April 4, 2014 disappearance and murder of 11-year old Bernardo Uglione Boldrini in Três Passos, RS has shocked and revolted the entire nation. While it hasn't gained the level of attention in the foreign media that the Nardoni case did, it certainly should have done so if for no other reason than the brutal nature of the murder, the method and motives behind it. There are also a number of other controversial issues involved, not the least of which is the so-called suicide of, Odilaine Uglione, the child's biological mother in 2010, which with each passing day also appears to have actually been a murder too. Bernardo's murder, to my way of thinking, is far more revolting than the Nardoni case in that Bernardo's death was planned and it was motivated by hatred and greed.
On April 4, 2014 Bernardo disappeared from his home in Três Passos. His body was found in a shallow grave in the middle of dense jungle in the city of Frederico Westphalen some 70 Km. From his home. Because of their cold and unattached behavior following Bernardo's disappearance suspicion automatically fell on his father, Leandro Boldrini (a prominent medical doctor and surgeon in the city) and Bernardo's step-mother, Graciele Ugulini, a nurse with whom Boldrini was having an extra-marital affair and who moved in with Boldrini just one month after the death of the boy's mother .
The investigation took a macabre turn of events on April 14, when suspicion also was cast on a close friend of Graciele, social assistant Edelvania Wirganovicz. When questioned by police she admitted having assisted Graciele murder and bury Bernardo's body and she led police to the secluded and remote gravesite. She stated that Graciele had given Bernardo a lethal injection and that the pair then sprinkled Caustic Soda on his body, wrapped him in heavy plastic garbage bag and buried him almost standing upright in the tiny grave. The autopsy found evidence of Midazolam (the same drug used in a recent botched execution in the USA) present in the boy's body.
Worse still, on the night following Bernardo's death Leandro and Graciele were seen at a great festival/party called "The Night Black" in the city of Três de Maio, sipping champagne and merry making as if nothing had taken place, obviously (in hindsight) to commemorate the child's death.
Of course once defense lawyers here in Brazil became involved the stories all have changed and dramatically different versions of what actually happened have been created. This always happens here in Brazil when lawyers become involved, monsters miraculously turn into saints. Boldrini steadfastly maintains his innocence, but no explanation has been yet given for the lies he has been caught in. Presently all three are sitting in prison cells thanks to temporary arrest warrants.
This case is also revolting because it highlights the grotesque failures in Brazilian laws and the judicial system, incompetence of Brazil's child protection agency the "Conselho Tutelar", State Prosecutors and Juvenile Courts, who for the most part protect young offenders and abandon children who are genuinely in need of protection to their own devices.
Bernardo, on his own, sought out the assistance of the Brazilian justice system and reported neglect and abuses that he was suffering at home following the death of his mother. He related that his father had since emotionally abandoned him and seemed to ignore the abuses heeped upon him by his step-mother. Instead of thoroughly investigating the allegations and temporarily removing Bernardo from the home (which SHOULD have been done) the judge, basing a decision purely upon the stature of the father within the community, and without calling upon any of the dozens of people who could have confirmed Bernardo's complaints, ordered the child back into the custody of the father. They now have the absolute gall to deny any guilt in the subsequent death of the lad, which clearly would have been prevented had they gotten off their collective butts, stepped outside their air conditioned offices and done the job that the Brazilian taxpayers EXPECTED they would do. Bernardo's death was a tragedy that had been announced before it happened.
With each passing day new information comes to light that clearly seems to indicate that Leandro and Graciele may have, in fact, been responsible for the death of Bernardo's mother. That her death was to avoid a multi-million divorce settlement resulting from Leandro and Gracieles adulterous affair and that Bernardo was killed in order to recoup the substantial assets that passed to him upon his mother's death and out of Graciele's hatred of the child.
To date police in Três Passos are refusing to re-open the case of the mother's death, saying that it is unnecessary to do so absent "new evidence". They rushed to close the case even before reports from forensic experts were even completed. A lawyer for the maternal grandmother has released a report from the Medical Examiner that states that Odilaine died from a single gunshot wound that entered through the left side of the palate, passing upward and exiting through the left side of her skull. He went on to state details of gunshot residue tests that confirmed the presence of residue on the victim's LEFT hand and the absence of residue on the right hand. The family has confirmed that Odilaine was NOT lefthanded. The Medical Examiner went on to state that, "The presence of residue on the left hand did not, in itself, mean that the victim actually fired a weapon, that it was possible that a weapon was discharged in close proximity to her hand or that it had been raised as a defense gesture". Yet another medical doctor has stated that given the entry and exit wounds and trajectory of the bullet it would be almost humanly impossible for a righthanded person to have fired the shot with their left hand.
Graciele, who has now confessed to Bernardo's death was the ONLY person who was actually present in the consultation room when the so-called suicide took place. This certainly sounds like NEW EVIDENCE to me, compelling evidence at that. However, I don't expect that police are going to now eat crow, state that they rushed to close the case and clear a prominent member of the community of suspicion rather than investigate thoroughly. Had they done so in the first place the case would likely not have been ruled a suicide at all, but rather homicide or at the very least "suspicious".
The depths to which some people have sunk in this country never ceases to amaze me; probably never will.
Rest in Peace Bernardo, you deserved much better than you got in life. You deserved to be loved and protected above all else.
In deepest sorrow,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team