Monday, October 14, 2024 - A woman who became a police officer to avenge her murdered father had helped to arrest his killer 25 years after the crime.
Gislayne Silva de Deus, from Boa Vista, northern Brazil, was
nine when her dad Givaldo was shot de@d in a bar over a debt worth £20 in 1999.
Givaldo’s killer, Raimundo Alves Gomes, took his victim to
hospital but disappeared afterwards.
He was caught, put on trial and sentenced to 12 years in
2013 but was allowed to stay out of prison while fighting a series of appeals
against the verdict.
After the final appeal was rejected in 2016, a warrant was
issued for his arrest but he disappeared again.
The news devastated Gislayne, who was now in her late 20s
working as a lawyer, and the rest of Givaldo’s family.
"We got used to living with uncertainty, always
wondering if we would ever be able to locate him," she told Brazilian news
site G1.
In 2022, Gislayne became a prison officer, saying she
"always imagined [Gomes] arriving there to serve his sentence".
But it remained a daydream, even after one of her uncles
spotted Gomes in the city where the m*rder took place later that year.
The uncle alerted authorities, but Gomes disappeared before
they could arrest him.
She then applied to join her state’s Civil Police, becoming
a clerk in July this year, and immediately applied to join its murder unit.
Once in, she helped to gather information about Gomes’
whereabouts and issued the formal order for his arrest.
Gislayne, now 35, was finally able to confront her father’s
k!ller back at the police station and tell him why he had been caught, in a
moment which was filmed and shared online.
"It’s because of me that you are here," she told
him, adding: "You are now going to pay."
It took a moment to muster up the courage to face him,
Gislayne said, continuing: "When I saw the man who was responsible for my
dad’s de@th was finally in handcuffs, I couldn’t hold back the tears.
"It was an explosion of feelings that turned into tears
of relief, as it seemed like this day would never come.
‘"My dad was an honest and hard-working man. He
encouraged us to study and spent time helping us with homework and times
tables. He was always very close to us and caring.
"My sisters and I went through really difficult times
after we lost him. What happened could easily have sentins on a different
direction, but our mother always taught us to follow the right path."
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