Boy orphaned in Rio attack

2007-02-28 07:24

Rio De Janeiro - An orphaned two-year-old French child is to be cared for by his grandmother, who was travelling to Brazil from France, after his parents were stabbed to death on Tuesday at the non-profit agency where they worked, the French consulate said.

The boy's parents, along with another French national, were killed on Tuesday at the organisation's headquarters near Copacabana beach by assailants who apparently wanted to protect a Brazilian accountant accused of stealing money from the group.

One of the victims was decapitated.

After hearing screams from the third floor office and calling police, a doorman at the building captured the accountant, who recently was accused of bilking money from the group, as he was trying to flee with a safe, said police inspector Marcus Castro. Officers arrested two more suspects within hours.

Castro identified the victims as Delphine Douyere, 36, and Christian Doupes, 42, the directors of Terr'Ativa - roughly translated from Portuguese as Active Earth - and organisation employee Jerome Faure, 38. The non-governmental organisation works to improve education for children and adolescents from poor communities.

The group's accountant, Tarsio Wilson Ramires, said he went to the office with two others to scare the victims, but police believe they wanted to kill them so Ramires would not get into trouble, Castro said.

Ramires, 25, was allowed into the building at about 07:30 along with the two accomplices because he told the doorman he knew them.

Suspect left a life on the streets

The French couple helped Ramires leave a life on the streets after they arrived in Brazil more than 10 years ago, offering him a job, Globo TV reported.

After arriving at the group's third floor offices, the three donned masks and put on surgical gloves, then called Faure to come downstairs from his 10th floor apartment in the same building, Castro said.

Faure was tied up in a chair, and may have been tortured, and the assailants then called Douyere and Doupes down from their 9th floor apartment, Castro said.

A struggle erupted after the couple arrived, and they were stabbed to death. The assailants then decided to kill Faure, decapitating him and leaving pools of blood on the floor and blood spattered on the walls, Castro said.

The attack was the latest grisly crime in a crime-weary city that has been hit by successive waves of brutal killings over the last several months. Less than a month ago, five young men and teenagers stole a car and dragged to death a six-year-old boy who got stuck in his seat belt while trying to escape.

- AP