Guarulhos Strangler

The Guarulhos Strangler is an unidentified Brazilian serial killer who raped ten women in the city of Guarulhos from 2001 to 2002, strangling to death eight of his victims. Two men were arrested as suspects but were later released, leaving all the cases unsolved.

Murders 2001 The first confirmed victim was 24-year-old Elisângela Nicolau dos Santos, a homemaker who was found strangled with a purse strap inside her home in Jardim Santa Rita on 17 July 2001. The killer then stole a TV and a clothes iron from the house and fled.

On 26 October, a man broke into the home of a 21-year-old woman, known only by the initials "VRS", whom he then raped and attempted to strangle with a yellow cloth. The victim fainted, but the attacker did not notice this and proceeded to steal a TV. The woman was found later that noon by a concerned neighbor, suffering from a nosebleed, and was immediately rushed to the Pérola Byington Hospital for treatment. She survived the ordeal and described what had happened, claiming that the assailant had laughed and mocked her during the assault. Shortly after providing testimony, she left Guarulhos and moved to another state.

On 19 November, 18-year-old student Joice Rodrigues dos Santos was strangled to death with a purse strap at her home in Jardim Eliana. Like the previous attacks, the killer stole a TV set.

According to descriptions provided by the surviving victims, the Strangler appeared to be a bespectacled white male in his late 20s or early 30s and was approximately 1.65 meters tall. He always attacked at noon and used some kind of ruse to enter the victims' domiciles, usually by pretending to be an employee of the water, electricity, or sewage treatment company, and sometimes by claiming that he was interested in buying their house. In almost all of the crime scenes, at least one item had been stolen, usually an electronic device of some kind or a TV. The man was taken to the police station for identification, but as the victims did not recognize him, he was released.

Three months later, on 30 December, police detained another man in Guarulhos after an anonymous tip accused him of being the Strangler. When searched, the man was found to be in possession of pornographic magazines and women's underwear, and like the previous suspect, he was taken to the police station for identification. However, similarly to the first suspect, he was also not recognized by the victims and released.

Since then, there have been no further arrests in the case, which remains cold.