Marcelo Costa de Andrade

Case summary

Marcelo Costa de Andrade was found incompetent on April 26, 1993. He was sent to the Heitor Carrilho Psychiatric Hospital in Rio, where he was evaluated annually and each year since then he had been declared insane.

After being confined, Andrade escaped on January 24, 1997. Police re-arrested him on February 5, 1997 while he was making his way “the Holy Land”.

Andrade confessed to the rape and death of 14 children in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói in 1991. His habit to drink the blood of his victims earned him the nickname “O Vampiro de Niterói” (The Vampire of Niterói). He did not claim to be a vampire. He said he drank the blood of his victims simply in order “to become as beautiful as them”.

Timeline

• April 26, 1993 — Found incompetent; placed in the Heitor Carrilho Psychiatric Hospital.
• 1991 (killing spree lasting nine months) — Confessed to the rape and death of 14 children in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói.
• December 1991 — Andrade “fell in love” with 10-year-old Altair de Abreu and spared his life.
• January 24, 1997 — Escaped from the psychiatric hospital after a guard accidentally left a door open.
• February 5, 1997 — Re-arrested while making his way “the Holy Land”.

Background

Marcelo Costa de Andrade was born in 1967. He was the son of poor migrants from the northeast and grew up in the Rocinha Slum in Rio de Janeiro. He was regularly beaten by his stepfather. At the age of ten, he was sexually abused. At fourteen, he began to prostitute himself for a living. He was sent to a reform school, but escaped and returned to his hustling ways.

At sixteen, Andrade began a long-lasting homosexual relationship with an older man. At seventeen, he tried to rape his own ten-year-old brother. His relationship later ended, and he came back to live with his mother and his brother(s). He found a low-paying job distributing flyers for a shop in the district of Copacabana and joined the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, attending church four times a week.

The offence

Andrade’s killing spree began in April 1991 and lasted nine months, claiming 14 victims. His victims were described as boys aged 6 to 13. His victims of choice were poor street kids whom he attracted to deserted areas.

He practiced necrophilia. He decapitated one of his victims, crushed the head of another, and in two occasions drank their blood. He later confessed that he killed and drank their blood so he could “become as beautiful as them”. He also kept victims’ shorts as trophies.

Andrade targeted boys rather than girls. He said girls were different from boys because they did not go to heaven.

Confession and stated motive (blood/appearance)

Andrade told Dr Helen Morrison, a forensic psychiatrist and serial-killer profiler, that the children had “bad lives here” and that if they were children when they died they went to heaven. He also described his motive for drinking blood and killing.

Verbatim statement:

“The children have bad lives here.
If they are children when they die they go to heaven. A better place.”

Verbatim statement:

“I like the boys and I didn't want them to go to hell.”

Verbatim statement:

“to become as beautiful as them”

Altair de Abreu and Ivan Abreu

In December 1991, Andrade “fell in love” with 10-year-old Altair de Abreu, an intended victim. Altair had his six-year-old brother, Ivan, with him when Andrade met him.

Andrade strangled Ivan in front of Altair and then told the terrified youngster he loved him and asked him to live with him. Too afraid to refuse, Altair spent the night with Andrade and later escaped the following morning.

Altair returned home and lied about his missing brother, saying he had lost him. Within a few days his sister had gotten the truth out of him. The family went to the police, and Andrade was arrested at work after eventually confessing and leading police to the remains of his other victims.

Verbatim account of Ivan’s killing (Altair to police, as quoted):

“We were heading for a church, but as we crossed a vacant lot, Marcelo suddenly turned on Ivan and started strangling him. I was so paralyzed by fear I could not run away. I watched in horror, tears streaming down my cheeks, as he killed and then raped my brother. When he was finished with Ivan, he turned to me, hugged me, and said he loved me.”

Investigation and police actions

Police had initially thought that Ivan’s murder was a one-off. Eventually Andrade confessed and led them to the remains of his other victims.

Arrest and hospital placement

Andrade was arrested at work. He was sent to the Heitor Carrilho Psychiatric Hospital in Rio, where he was declared insane and evaluated annually.

Escape and re-arrest

Andrade escaped on January 24, 1997 after a guard accidentally left a door open. He was on the run for 12 days until police caught up with him in Guaraciaba do Norte in the northeastern state of Ceara. He had hitched his way more than 3,000 km to visit his father and was “on the way to the Holy Land” when picked up.

Verbatim statement to police:

“by killing the children he was now purified.”

He was re-arrested on February 5, 1997 while making his way “the Holy Land”.

Other details

Andrade also had a long-running spiritual narrative around his killings. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God was described as believing that “demons” were responsible for people’s problems. Andrade claimed he was possessed by evil spirits who forced him to kill because “they like children's blood”.

Verbatim statement about possession:

“they like children's blood”

Casoy explained that she felt Andrade did not know the true scale of what he did and that nobody knew what treatment he should receive. She said:

“Many serial killers in Brazil kill children, but each one has their own way of doing it.”
“Each one of them has his own fantasies and symbolism, his own ritual way of killing someone.”
“But my meeting with De Andrade was different to my meetings with other killers in many ways, because by meeting him I could really understand what it is to be an insane person.”
“De Andrade has this mental illness and you get the feeling he doesn't know the true scale of what he did, the difference between right and wrong.”
“There is no cure. Nobody knows what treatment he should receive, so they give him drugs to keep him under control, and that's about all they can do.”

Casoy was described as meeting and interviewing Andrade many times. Casoy said she was sick in bed for four days after talking to him and said:

“Meeting someone like Marcelo Costa de Andrade is very hard for any human being.”
“I was sick in bed for four days after I talked to him.”
“He is like a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing.”
“Look at him and you would never for a single second imagine what he is capable of doing with children.”
“As soon as he told me that he took the shorts off every child he killed and kept them as trophies he asked me to bring him a gift - a pair of new shorts.”
“I'd never give them to him.”
“I hope he stays in the lunatic asylum for his entire life.”

A forensic psychiatrist interview narrative included that after raping and killing 11-year-old Odair Jose Muniz, Andrade returned later with a machete that he told his mother he was taking to cut some bananas, and then hacked the boy’s head off.

Verbatim exchange:

“Why?” asked Morrison.
In order, De Andrade told her, that the other children in heaven would make fun of him because he wouldn't have a head.

Another quoted belief attributed to Andrade was that boys who died under the age of 13 automatically went to heaven, and he misunderstood the meaning as a literal assurance that killing them would send them to paradise. The statement attributed to Andrade was:

“boys who died under the age of 13 automatically went to heaven”

Andrade told Altair after Ivan’s death:

“I have sent Ivan to heaven.”
“I love you.”

Andrade carried a bowl while committing offences and drank blood so he would be “as young and cute as them”. Verbatim statement:

“as young and cute as them”

Andrade was described as having returned to a crime scene to tuck the tiny boy’s hands into his pockets so the rats wouldn’t gnaw the fingers.

Casoy described Andrade’s ongoing mindset while confined:

“His mind is more or less the same as that of a 12-year-old,”
and: “He dreams of going to Disneyland or Moscow, winning a million dollars and having plastic surgery on his face so he would never be recognised by anyone.”
“He never feels bad about what did, just worried that it screwed up his life.”
“He wasn't happy telling me what he did, but he wasn't sad about it either.”
“It's something that doesn't make any difference to him either way... ”
“He believes he was utterly tender to the children he killed and saved them from hell.”
“He doesn't know it was really wrong or awful.”
“He told me all of it as if he was talking about simple everyday things, but with specific and cruel details, and the tone in his voice never changed - never changed for a single moment.”

Andrade was described as residing in the Henrique Roxo hospital in Rio de Janeiro. He claimed to be an evangelist and expressed hope he would one day be back on the streets. He asked God to light the way and said he needed “the love of a good woman” to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Casoy was quoted as saying his religious convictions were a sham:

“De Andrade is not a religious guy and he never was,” she said.
“He just heard a priest who said that a child under 13 years old goes straight to paradise if he dies without sins. He believed it literally.”

Andrade reportedly phoned Dr Morrison in 2001 in Sao Paulo and demanded $10,000 for an interview; Morrison flatly refused.

“he asked me to bring him a gift - a pair of new shorts.”