A builder who killed and concreted a young woman under a staircase has been jailed for nearly 30 years.
Victim Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues, 25, was strangled to death with a shirt before her body was concealed on a construction site in Sao Vicente, Sao Paulo State, Brazil.
Cruel Jonathas Soares de Santana, 37, who worked on the site, has now been sentenced to 29 years and 10 months in prison for murder.
Ms Rodrigues was reported missing on September 27, 2021, after leaving home for what she said was a visit to see her grandfather.
Civil Police officers then found her body concreted in the wall on October 5, after the building site owner noticed a bad smell.
Police seized Santana and a second suspect, 56-year-old bricklayer Edmilson Verissimo da Silva.
At first, they denied any involvement, but both men ended up confessing to the crime.
At the time, Silva stated that he had used drugs and had sexual relations with the young woman, who then went to spend time with Santana.
The bricklayer said he was on the second floor of the construction site when the builder and Joice began to argue.
Silva said he went down to help Santana kill the young woman and place her body in a gap under the staircase, before concreting it up.
The bricklayer told the police that he had known the young woman for six years and claimed to have paid to meet her.
Police in Brazil also freed a woman who was assaulted and bricked up in a tomb after hearing her cries for help at the end of March.
The 36-year-old was freed at the Municipal Cemetery of Visconde do Rio Branco, Minas Gerais State after gravediggers called the police.
They noticed that the niche had been freshly sealed with bricks and cement and that bloodstains were splattered in the area.
When officers arrived on the scene, they heard the woman crying for help, opened the tomb, and freed her.
The Municipality of Visconde do Rio Branco said in a statement: "Despite the fact that the area where the incident occurred is partially closed, and even with increased security, invasions continue to occur, mainly by drug users, due to the disastrous situation in which the Municipal Cemetery was found by the current administration."
