Police investigate double homicide or femicide of mother and daughter in Porto Alegre

The Civil Police are investigating whether there is a relationship between the cases and are working on the hypothesis of double homicide or feminicide in the deaths of Patrícia Cristina Pereira, 31, and her daughter, Karolayne Cristina Costa.

The police identified three suspects in the murders of Patrícia and Karolayne and are working with two hypotheses in investigating the case: double homicide or feminicide. Their names were not released and they were not arrested.

The victims were found dead inside the house on Tuesday (29). They had not been seen since Sunday (27). According to the investigation, the target would be the woman. The teenager would have been killed because she was also in the house at the time of the invasion.

There were signs of forced entry on the doors of the house. According to police, mother and daughter were stabbed to death, but the murder weapon has not yet been located.

In addition to the teenager, Patrícia was the mother of three other children: a 10-year-old girl and 9-month-old twins. It was the children's nanny who found the bodies and called the police.

In an interview with Rádio Gaúcha on Wednesday (30), delegate Paulo César Schirrmann stated that "he does not rule out any type of investigation, any type of relationship that the victim may have in his personal life".

The police are also investigating what the family's life dynamics were like. Patrícia was a businesswoman and owner of a nightclub nearby. A threat report filed by her in December is being evaluated to see if it is related to the crime.

According to the police, Patrícia's youngest children had been with their nanny since the Thursday before the crime. She tried to contact her by phone on Sunday to return the children, but did not receive a response.

On Tuesday, the employee went to the residence, found the victims lifeless and called the Military Brigade. The Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu), the Civil Police and the General Institute of Expertise (IGP) also responded to the incident and confirmed the deaths at the scene. The police suspect that the deaths occurred around 48 hours before the bodies were found. However, there are no close neighbors and it is not known exactly when they occurred.

After the crime, the twins were sent by the Guardianship Council to the care of their father, from whom Patrícia had been separated for around five months. The 10-year-old girl remains with the nanny.