Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho dos Santos, who is accused of murdering his 17-year-old girlfriend Cara Marie Burke on July 26 in Brazil, showed pictures of the girl's body to friends, according to a witness testimony Tuesday.
The witness, Poliana da Costa Novaes, said Santos went to her son's birthday party on the night of the murder, and showed her pictures of Burke's cut-up body on his cell phone.
Santos said the pictures were a joke, and the blood was made of ketchup. Novaes, interested in those pictures, asked Santos about them again the next day. The murderer did not confirm whether it was a joke or not, according to the witness.
Police found a text message in Santos' cell phone in which the murderer made fun of the crime. The message was sent to his brother, Bruce Lee Carvalho dos Santos, in England.
Police chief Jorge Moreira, head of the Homicides Division, said the case had already been solved and he was only waiting for the final forensics reports.
Santos is alleged to have murdered Burke with a butcher's knife on the night of July 26, in Goiania, midwestern Brazil.
He allegedly hid her body in the shower stall and went to a party afterwards. He dismembered Burke the next day, throwing her torso in a car trunk and the remaining parts in a stream, the court heard.
Burke's torso was found on July 28. She was recognized by her family in England through a tattoo showed on an international news channel. On Sunday, one of Burke's legs was found in the Sozinha Stream, 30 kilometers from Goiania. The girl's head and arms were found Monday in the same stream.
If convicted, Santos could spend up to 36 years in prison.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)
