Overview
- Police in Bahia found missing 23-year-old Manuela Vieira Matos Silva inside a freezer in a house in Vitória da Conquista and later arrested 29-year-old Lucas Santos Lima in Ilhéus.
- Authorities report that Lima confessed after his capture and told investigators the killing followed an argument while both used drugs, adding that he had a brief prior relationship with the victim.
- The suspect’s girlfriend alerted officers after entering his home, noticing women’s items that were not hers, opening the freezer, and finding the body, and police say she is not a suspect.
- Forensic examiners are waiting on autopsy results to confirm the injuries, the precise cause of death, and whether the victim was pregnant, as raised by the family’s account.
- Investigators say there is no family tie between the victim and the suspect and they are still working to determine any relationship and motive as Brazil recorded 1,518 femicides in 2025.