Tiago Gomes da Rocha

Case record

Identity

Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha was a former Brazilian security guard.

Background and claimed motive

Gomes da Rocha stated that his murderous urges began after he was sexually abused by his neighbor when he was 11 years old.

The offences

Gomes da Rocha approached his victims on a motorbike and shouted “robbery” before shooting them. He fled the scene without taking anything.

He targeted homeless people, women and homosexuals in Goiás.

He confessed to killing 39 people.

His youngest victim was a 14-year-old girl killed in January 2014.

Sixteen of Gomes da Rocha’s victims were women.

He also stabbed prostitutes and choked people he believed to be gay.

Specific victims and victim count details mentioned

Police commissioner Douglas Pedrosa said that Rocha labelled victims by numbers rather than names.

Police said victim number one was Diego Martins Mendes, 16. In 2011, Rocha approached Diego at a coach station under the assumption that he was gay and convinced him to go to an overgrowth for sex. Rocha said the act was never consummated and that Diego was strangled. Diego’s body has never been found.

Two other men followed Diego as victims: a former coworker who was killed by stabbing, and another man Rocha also thought was gay.

A woman was the victim in Rocha’s last attempt of murder on Sunday, October 12. The gun failed.

Gomes da Rocha’s last victim was Ana Lidia Gomes, who was 14 when he shot her dead as she left her home.

Earlier in January 2014, Bárbara Costa, 14, was shot in the chest by a man on a motorcycle as she waited for her grandmother in a public square, and the shooter left without taking anything.

The next day, Beatriz Moura, 23, was shot by a man on a motorcycle, and nothing was taken.

Gomes da Rocha killed at least six women this year, according to an investigator on the case, Norton Ferreira.

Method and alleged conduct during attacks

Gomes da Rocha shot victims from a motorbike while speeding past them, and drove by and attacked random victims before speeding away.

He was said to have demanded valuables from his victims before shooting them and leaving without the items.

Police said he had no link to any of his victims and chose them at random.

During police questioning, he identified each victim by a number (for example, “number 30, number 12”), and after admitting to a crime he stayed for about five minutes in a catatonic state, thinking about the crime.

He also gave details about the place and what he was feeling during those periods.

At times, he had a smile on his face, and he did not provide details about the faces, but did provide details about the violence.

Investigation

Police Commissioner Douglas Pedrosa headed the interrogation of the suspected serial killer.

Police said 150 police officers part of a task force investigated the murders in the capital of the state of Goiás for 70 days.

During a public presentation on Thursday, October 16, family members of murdered women shouted “murderer”.

Police said the suspect confessed to all 16 crimes under investigation and more, with a total of 39 homicides, and that the first crimes dated back to 2011.

The suspect’s lawyer, Thiago Vidal, said his client denied all murders and that he only took responsibility for them because he felt scared during interrogation.

Rocha became annoyed with the presence of female officers during testimony, and they subsequently left the room.

Arrest and evidence retrieved

Gomes da Rocha was arrested after being pulled over while riding a motorbike with a fake plate in the city of Goiania.

Police said he was facing trial for stealing the numberplate off a motorbike at a supermarket in Goiania in January 2014.

Officers swooped on Rocha after discovering he was facing trial for the numberplate theft.

A motorbike, stolen plates, and the suspected murder weapon, a .38 revolver, were retrieved from a home he shared with his mother.

He attempted to kill another victim on October 12; the gun failed.

Suicide attempt and prison monitoring

Gomes da Rocha attempted suicide in his prison cell on 16 October 2014 by slashing his wrists with a smashed light bulb.

He was put on suicide watch.

Police said he was monitored constantly while he was inside the cell.

Police chief Eduardo Prado said Gomes da Rocha “We’re monitoring him constantly. He doesn’t love himself and he’s already attempted suicide. “He constantly asks for dental floss to take with him when I’m with him. When you ask him if it’s so he can kill himself he just laughs sarcastically.”

Trial and sentencing

In May 2016, Gomes da Rocha was convicted of eleven murders and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

His current sentence was recorded as 343 years and 10 months in prison in 2016.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Gomes da Rocha remained convicted and was sentenced in 2016.

Aftermath and additional statements

Families and friends of women murdered in 2014 staged demonstrations to pressure police and local government to solve the crime. They wore white and carried photos of the victims.

Gomes da Rocha’s family described him as a quiet young man with few friends.

He rarely went out to social events at night.

He lived with his mother and a brother and never met his father.

He graduated high school and worked for a couple of years in a private security firm.

Police said he stole a .38-caliber gun from his job and used it in the murders.

For the last four months before arrest, he had worked a night security shift in a large hospital in Goiania.

Gomes da Rocha said he killed because of the “rage he felt against everything,” which only subsided when he murdered.

Quotations:

• Police Chief Eduardo Prado said: “He asked whether he would face trial if he killed someone else in custody. “He still wants to kill. His attitude is very strange.”
• Gomes da Rocha told journalist James Young in The Sun: ‘I had an ordinary childhood until I was 11. Then I was sexually abused by a neighbour. After that I felt like I was nothing. ‘I felt the anger growing in me from that moment on. I’d started drinking a lot too. When I was 22, I couldn’t stop myself anymore. It was like I had to do it.’
• Police chief Eduardo Prado told Brazil's Globo G1 website: ‘He asked the agents if he would answer criminally if he were to kill one of the other inmates. ‘We found this attitude very strange, as well as the disjointed things he's always saying.’
• Eduardo Prado said: ‘Our concern is with observing him constantly inside the cell. He has no love for himself, he has already attempted suicide. ‘Always, when I am in the room, he asks for dental floss. I ask if is to kill himself with and he gives a sarcastic laugh. ‘Truly, when he is transferred to a long-term prison, that prison's management will have to have a very robust and more methodical control of the situation, which is actually highly dangerous.’
• Police Commissioner Douglas Pedrosa said: “It wasn't a woman. It was a man”, Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha, 26, answered.
• Gomes da Rocha told the Commissioner: “I am angry with the world”.
• Chief of Police Deusny Aparecido said: “felt anger at everything and everyone,”
• Aparecido said: “He had no link to any of his victims and chose them at random. It could have been me, you or your children,”
• Chief Police Detective Joao Gorski said: “I believe he is a serial killer. In the beginning, he killed at random, but by the end he had established a pattern”.
• Gomes da Rocha told The Sun: “I had an ordinary childhood until I was 11. I’d started drinking a lot too. It was like I had to do it.”
• Gomes da Rocha told the newspaper: “I was rejected a lot in the past, so I directed part of my anger towards women,”
• Gomes da Rocha said to the newspaper: “My mind went blank, but I would cry later,” and “I would cry later,” and “My mind went blank, but I would cry later”
• Gomes da Rocha said to the newspaper: “My mind went blank, but I would cry later,” noting that he was emotionless when he randomly selected his targets.
• Gomes da Rocha said: 'I wanted to say that I am remorseful, that I wanted to have a chance to pay for what I've done — to ask for forgiveness,'
• Gomes da Rocha said: 'I couldn't explain.'
• Gomes da Rocha told Folha: ‘It was 'stronger than me,' I couldn't explain.'
• Thiago Vidal said: “I have to get this from inside me,”
• When asked twice about the number of victims, Gomes da Rocha refused to answer the first time and said only: 'No comment.'
• Gomes da Rocha, as recounted by police, said about victims: 'Which number? Oh, victim number 3, victim number 5'.