Court keeps suspect Eric Conrado in custody over Cotia killings By Luís Henrique Costa
3 min read
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The São Paulo Court of Justice (TJSP) kept the temporary arrest of businessman Eric Conrado Alves de Almeida, 41, suspected of killing lawyer Anna Gabriela Faria Lima, 29, and her 6-year-old son in Cotia, in Greater São Paulo. The decision was made at a custody hearing on November 5, 2026, which confirmed the legality of the arrest warrant carried out by the Polícia Civil. According to the court, no irregularities were found in how the order was executed.
The suspect denied the crime to reporters at the police station. Police, however, consider him the only person responsible for the deaths, which happened in a residential building. Authorities also placed him on Interpol’s wanted list because of the risk he could flee abroad, since he holds a Portuguese passport.
Forensic police check whether strangulation killed mother and son
The bodies were found side by side on a double bed in the apartment where they lived, in the Lajeado neighborhood of Cotia. Neither showed gunshot or stab wounds, but both had signs of pressure on the neck consistent with strangulation. The Polícia Técnico-Científica is checking whether both received sedatives before dying of asphyxia, a question that depends on toxicology reports from the Instituto Médico Legal.
The case is investigated as feminicide and vicarious violence, a category used when relatives or children are fatally attacked to deliberately cause suffering to the mother. A friend of the victim told reporters the lawyer had decided to end the relationship about a month earlier, and that the suspect did not accept it. Former schoolmates of the suspect said he had attacked them as teenagers, and one of them suffered serious facial injuries.
Cameras on Estrada Manoel Lages do Chão recorded the woman, the boy and the suspect entering the building on Sunday night. Around 2:14 a.m. on Monday, only the man walked out toward the street. Police said no other person entered the block until the bodies were found.
Police located the apartment after a lawyer at a law office in Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo state, received a call from the suspect reporting two dead people at the address. Phone records show he called his mother 38 times shortly after the estimated time of the deaths. Officers of the Grupo de Operações Especiais arrested him on Wednesday at a house in Jaguaré, in the West Zone of the capital.
Key dates from the crime scene to the custody hearing
- November 1, 2026: cameras record Anna Gabriela, her son and the suspect entering the condominium together.
- November 2, 2026: the suspect leaves the building alone in the early morning, with no record of other entries.
- November 3, 2026: police find the bodies after the call to the law office.
- November 4, 2026: the 1st Criminal Court of Cotia decrees a 30-day temporary arrest, and police arrest the suspect in Jaguaré.
- November 5, 2026: the custody hearing keeps the arrest, and the victims are buried at Cemitério Parque do Morumbi.
Where to report violence against women in São Paulo
- Women’s Support Center: dial 180, a free service available across Brazil 24 hours a day.
- Military Police: dial 190 in cases of flagrante or immediate threat.
- Electronic police stations: register a police report and request protective measures through the Polícia Civil of São Paulo’s online service.
