Chinese businessman sentenced to 38 years in prison for femicide of young girl in Pavuna

The Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice sentenced merchant Qiu Zhaohu to 38 years in prison this Wednesday (29) for the feminicide of Marcelle Julia.

The crime occurred in June 2025, in Pavuna, after the young woman refused romantic advances from Zhaohu. The body was found on another property of his.

Zhaohu was arrested in Carapicuíba, in São Paulo, after fleeing Rio. In her sentence, judge Elizabeth Louro highlighted the suffering imposed on the family.

Last Wednesday (29), the RJ Court of Justice sentenced Chinese merchant Qiu Zhaohu, known as Xau, to 38 years in prison, under a closed regime, for feminicide and hiding the body of Marcelle Julia Araújo da Silva.

The young woman was killed in June 2025, in Pavuna, in the North Zone of Rio.

The decision was made by the 2nd Jury Court. According to the complaint, Marcelle was killed for a bad reason after refusing Zhaohu's romantic advances. She wanted to maintain just a friendly relationship with him.

According to the investigation, on the day of the crime, Marcelle told her family that she was going to the merchant's house. Security camera footage recorded the young woman arriving at the property in the early hours of the morning. Hours later, Zhaohu was filmed leaving the scene pushing a wheelbarrow covered in a blue tarpaulin.

The young woman's body was later found in another property that belonged to the merchant, also in the North Zone. He was wrapped in a blue tarp and had been partially eaten by two pit bull dogs.

During investigations, a witness told the police that he had seen a message in which Zhaohu had confessed to the crime. According to the report, he wrote: "I've already killed, now I'm going to kill myself."

The merchant left Rio after the crime and was arrested in Carapicuíba, in São Paulo, in a joint operation by the civil police of both states.

In her sentence, judge Elizabeth Machado Louro stated that the case represents yet another episode of femicide among those who frequently come to the Jury Court and classified the scenario as one of "epidemic proportions".

“This is yet another classic episode of feminicide, among those that come to this Court almost every day, in epidemic proportions.”

The judge also stated that the penalty should take into account a preventive and pedagogical nature and highlighted the need to combat crimes of violence against women.

The sentence also mentioned the suffering imposed on Marcelle's family by the circumstances in which the young woman's body was found.

"Now, just the fact of handing over the victim's corpse to the hungry rage of pitbull dogs horrifies and disgusts any average person. It is not too much, therefore, to conclude from the immense pain caused to her family and, especially, to her mother, upon learning and imagining the horrifying scene portraying the tragic and humiliating end of a life that is still so vibrant", wrote the judge.