A soap-opera actor was found buried, the apparent victim of a murder.
Soap-opera actor Jefferson Machado, who had been missing for almost five months, was discovered dead on May 23 inside a trunk near a house in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cintia Hilsendeger, a family friend, confirmed the actor’s death on his Instagram page.
Authorities said that the body of the 44-year-old actor was found bound and concealed inside a wooden chest, which had been encased in concrete and buried six feet beneath the backyard of a house located in the Campo Grande neighborhood.
In a statement, the family’s lawyer, Jairo Magalhães, revealed, “He had his arms tied behind his head and buried in a trunk that is very similar to the ones in his own house.”
The attorney further indicated that the identity of the corpse was confirmed through fingerprints and noted the presence of a “line” on the neck, suggesting strangulation.
While investigations are ongoing, law enforcement is focusing on a man who had rented the property. This unidentified suspect, who allegedly knew Machado, was last seen entering the house a month before.
Family friend Hilsendeger expressed her grief and anger on the actor’s Instagram account, stating, “Jefferson was brutally and coldly murdered by evil, resentful, and, of course, unscrupulous people.”
The tragic conclusion concludes a long saga that began when Machado disappeared from his hometown of Rio in January. Police reported that his last known sighting was in Campo Grande.
The actor’s family became aware of his disappearance when a non-governmental organization informed them that his eight dogs had been abandoned at his residence.
Over the following months, the family received text messages from an individual they believed to be impersonating Machado. Machado’s mother, Maria das Dores, found the texts suspicious due to numerous spelling errors and a lack of resemblance to her son.
Dores stopped receiving phone calls from Machado, with the alleged impersonator claiming that he dropped his phone in the toilet. The family grew increasingly worried when they noticed changes to Machado’s cloud password and the deactivation of his location-tracking feature.
Born in Araranguá, Machado embarked on his acting career in 1997. He gained recognition for his role in the 2021 film “Placebo Effect (Efeito Placibo),” which he also co-wrote. His final acting endeavor before his untimely death was portraying a Philistine on the 2022 telenovela “Reis.”
