Moment Brazilian police unearth soap opera actor’s body stuffed inside a trunk with metal wire wrapped around his neck: Cops hunt for a person of interest after grim find underneath outhouse’s concrete floor
- Rio de Janeiro police released video of agents removing the trunk where actor Jefferson Machado was stuffed in before he was buried six feet under a property
- Family lawyer Jairo Malgahães said that the 44-year-old soap opera actor had a metal wire wrapped around his neck, suggesting he was chocked to death
- No arrests have been made as of Thursday, but police identified the renter of the property where Machado was found as someone they want to talk to
Police video shows the moment cops unearthed a wooden trunk that contained the remains of a missing soap opera actor in Brazil.
Jefferson Machado, 44, disappeared from his Rio de Janeiro home in January and was official reported missing in February before cops discovered his body Monday.
The Rio de Janeiro State Civil Police footage was revealed Wednesday after forensic workers confirmed Machado’s body through his fingerprints.
Two men can be seen using a jackhammer, pickaxes and a shovel to break open the concrete floor and dig out the dirt from an outhouse and then cops lifted the trunk out of a six-foot hole.
Cops with the Rio de Janeiro State Civil Police lift the wooden trunk with the remains of missing actor Jefferson Machado. The 44-year-old’s cause of death has not been revealed, but a family lawyers suggested he may have been choked to death because cops found he had a metal wire wrapped around his neck
Brazilian soap opera actor Jefferson Machado disappeared from his home in January and was officially declared missing in February
Machado had his hands tied and a metal wire wrapped around his neck, family lawyer Jairo Malgahães revealed, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.
‘This detail suggests that he was the target of a strangulation, but we are still waiting for the report with the cause of death,’ he said.
Malgahães said Machado’s body was in a state of decomposition and that it had traces of a liquid that was spilled over it to minimize the foul odor.
The actor’s body was discovered at a property in the western Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Campo Grande.
The owner of the home told police that she rented the outhouse to a person, who police have identified as a person of interest but who remained missing as of Thursday.
No arrests have been reported yet by Rio de Janeiro authorities.
Jefferson Machado’s most recent acting role was in the soap opera ‘Reis,’ which aired on Record TV
A pickaxe is used to break the ground under the concrete floor of a property where Brazilian cops discovered the body of missing actor Jefferson Machado inside a wooden trunk on Monday
A jackhammer is used to break the concrete floor of an outhouse in Rio de Janeiro where the remains of Brazilian actor Jefferson Machado were found inside a wooden trunk
The trunk was found buried six feet under the floor of the outhouse that was rented by the property owner to a man who has been identified by Rio de Janeiro authorities but not yet arrested
R7 news reported that Machado appeared to have known the person who rented the outhouse and that he was spotted in April visiting.
Machado disappeared from his home, also in Campo Grande, on 27 when non-governmental agency workers visited the residence and discovered that the animal-loving actor had abandoned his eight dogs.
Six of the dogs were found in Campo Grande and the nearby neighborhoods of Santa Cruz and Pechincha.
He was officially registered as a missing person February 9.
His mother, Maria das Dores told Brazilian outlet Notícias do Dia that she last spoke to Machado on January 29 and said he had traveled to São Paulo to interview for a job and staying at a friend’s home.
But they became increasingly worried because Machado had stopped calling them and text messages sent from his cellphone were regularly misspelled, which was uncharacteristic of him.
On one occasion, he told his mother he could not make a video phone call because he had dropped his cellphone in a toilet.
Their anxiety grew in February when his cloud’s password was changed and the location on the cellphone was deactivated.
A week before Mother’s Day, Malgahães said the family visited the police station and were told that it was possible that Machado was dead.
Brazilian actor Jefferson Machado was an avid animal lover and owned eight dogs
Cops in Rio de Janeiro searched an outhouse Monday and discovered the body of missing actor Jefferson Machado tied up inside a wooden trunk that was buried under the floor of the property. The 44-year-old also had a metal wire wrapped around his neck. He is said to have known the person who was living in the outhouse, who was still missing as of Thursday
The trunk was removed from under the floor by Civil Police agents in Rio de Janeiro on Monday
Machado’s most recent acting gig was in 2022 when he played the role of a soldier on the soap opera, ‘Reis,’ which aired on Record TV.
He was born in the southern Brazil state of Santa Catarina.
Machado graduated in journalism and cinema, and split 10 years living in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro before returning to Santa Catarina in 2008 to work in the television industry.
He then returned to Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of an acting career.
‘I had a blessed mother who put me to be an altar boy at the church, work as a model, do theater at school, participate in gymkhanas and gave me a surfboard to enjoy the sea,’ he once wrote on his social media networks.
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