True Life

Hired hitman fell in love with his victim, then faked her death with tomato ketchup 

A hired killer fell in love with his victim then faked her death with the help of some tomato ketchup. Hitman Carlos Roberto de Jesus, from Brazil, was paid £345 to murder Iranildes Aguiar Araujo.

He was contracted by housewife Maria Nilza Simoes, who was convinced Iranildes was having an affair with her husband.

But when de Jesus saw his intended victim he fell head over heels in love with her and confessed the plot. The pair then conjured up a plan to fool his employer into believing he had carried out the hit.



The new lovers bought two bottles of ketchup from a local supermarket.

De Jesus then got his supposed victim to rip her shirt and grip a machete under her armpit.
He then taped her mouth up, tied her hands, smothered her with ketchup and got her to lie still on the floor as if she were dead.

The ex-convict photographed Araujo and sent the picture to the 'cheated' wife saying he had killed her.
Araujo said: 'I tore my shirt, put the knife by my side here, then he tied me up and smothered me with ketchup.'

But the ruse was discovered three days later when Simoes saw the hired assassin kissing the very woman he was meant to have bumped off. She then went to the police to complain he had stolen 1000 dollars from her.

Detectives were amazed when de Jesus told the full story in a confession.
The murder was supposed to take place last July in the small town of Pidonbacu, in the state of Bahia, in eastern Brazil.

The three suspects were grilled by police chief Marconi Lima before being released on bail.
The hitman and his 'victim"' faces extortion charges and the woman who hired him charges of making threats to kill.

Sheriff Lima said: 'In eight years of policing I've never heard anything like it.'
While a local shopkeeper remarked: 'Could Maria not see that the knife was in the woman's armpit?'