Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/17/bizarre-woman-brings-corpse-to-bank-to-co-sign-trying-to-fool-banker-into-giving-her-3000-video.html
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She thought Weekend at Bernie’s was a documentary? Seriously?
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Previously on BB (yes they both refer to the same story):
I wonder how many times people have tried this, and if any have ever succeeded.
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Weekend at Bernie’s 3: Blame it on Rio
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See also:
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There are some videos of this very same woman carrying the poor man body around a shopping mall before going to the bank.
Authorities now say it is not possible to say with certainty whether the elderly man died before entering the bank branch or died while waiting to be attended to by the manager. The morgue said It was due to bronchoaspiration of stomach contents and heart failure.
The suspect’s lawyer categorically states that Mr. Paulo was alive when he entered the bank and he died moments before signing the document. For the lawyer, Ms. Erika suffered a nervous breakdown, a psychotic break, which prevented her from seeing reality.
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I am not a doctor but it looked like the guy’s arms were pretty flexible, in which case rigor mortis hadn’t yet set in, which means he probably only died a few hours ago tops.
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I’m not sure what that changes, but okay? I mean, she still knew the guy was dead, hence it’s still fraud, yeah?
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Are you suggesting…
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Thats what the authorities said. They cannot say exactly when He died, but the paramedics arrived around 3:00 pm, and based on the condition of the body, they estimate that he died around noon at the latest.
The morning TV news shows another video today in which they try to get a loan from another bank in a shopping mall. As this bank did not grant the loan, she crossed the street and went to the bank where she was arrested.
Her lawyer claims that he was alive all the time and died inside the bank. It’s one thing to attempt fraud using a defenseless elderly person who perhaps didn’t have much of an idea of what was happening. It’s another thing to walk around with a dead body. This is much more serious and the police are investigating the circumstances of Uncle Paulo’s death.
So it looks like they are going to explore this doubt about the time of death to try to get her out of jail. Ms. Erika claims that her uncle was lucid and wanted the money to renovate his house and buy a new television.
ETA
Here in Brazil, banks and other financial institutions usually offer loans without much bureaucracy for retired elderly people, as they deduct payment installments directly from the pension they are entitled to receive every month. For banks, it is a guarantee that they will not have to bear customer defaults, as the government guarantees this money.
The Police didn’t rule It out yet.
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Okay, so the time of death matters, because if he died while she was seeking the loan, it’s still fraud, but it might be murder if not… Makes sense! thanks!
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It could be murder, intentional or not, or It could be plain negligence. Bronchoaspiration, is a fair common cause of death in elderly patients. But a caretaker could do something to help Him. The Police and her lawyer Will have a lot of work to do.
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Rigor mortis isn’t a permanent state. It wears off after a few hours.
On the other hand, by the time rigor wears off and the body becomes flexible again, other decomposition processes typically start to set in, which might be difficult even for the dullest bank manager to ignore.
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The police officer handling the case told the newspapers that “It doesn’t make any difference. What makes the crime happen is that she [Erika] knows that the person is dead and yet she continues with that behavior. So, if I had died a minute earlier and she still continued with that behavior, pretending that he was alive, the crime would be completed”, he pointed out.
The police already know that on 04/08, Mr. Paulo was admitted to a health unit with a lung infection. A camera caught him leaving that location one week after, on April 15th. That very same day, Ms. Erika took him to a shopping mall, where they asked how they would get a loan from a bank. The next day she returns to the mall and is unable to obtain the loan. She wanders around the mall and tries to position her uncle in the wheelchair, but his body insists on falling. She then did left the Mall and walks another 500 meters and enters another bank on the other side of the street.
The Uber driver who took Ms. Erika and her late uncle to the Shopping Center in a neighborhood in the west of Rio de Janeiro, claims that the elderly man was alive when he got in and when he got out of the car. Another man, who helped the elderly man into the car, also claims that he was alive.
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