Strange surveillance footage has revealed the moment a woman gave her uncle’s corpse a glass of water before trying to take out a loan in his name at a bank in Brazil.
The video, which aired Sunday on the Brazilian news program Fantastico, showed Erika de Souza, 42, pushing Paulo Braga, 68, in a wheelchair moments before paramedics pronounced him dead on last Tuesday.
The new security camera recorded De Souza standing next to Braga before going to the bathroom. A bank employee could then be seen leaving her seat and reaching out to hold Braga’s head after she leaned back.
De Souza, a mother of six, returned six minutes later with a glass of water, but Braga remained motionless.
He would then approach another bank employee’s desk and try to get Braga to sign the $3,250 loan documents, all of which was captured on a viral video recorded by one of the workers.
In the footage, De Souza can be heard telling Braga: ‘Dude, are you listening? You have to sign.’
Last Tuesday, Érika de Souza approached the body of her uncle, Paulo Braga, in a bank branch in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, moments before trying to withdraw $3,250 that had been previously approved.
Érika de Souza visited her uncle, Paulo Braga, just days before he was discharged from a medical center and later died on April 16.
She then told the cashier, ‘He doesn’t say anything, he just is,’ and turned to her uncle and said, ‘If you’re not okay, I’ll take you to the hospital.’
The bankers were disturbed by her behavior and called the police, who arrested her on the spot.
Surveillance cameras also recorded De Souza taking his uncle to an office at the bank branch and paramedics arriving before giving him CPR.
An autopsy showed that Braga’s death was caused by “bronchoaspiration and heart failure.”
Investigators from the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police discovered that he was already dead before reaching the bank. Paramedics noted that body marks that were visible behind his head indicated that he had been dead for two hours.
Érika de Souza holds Paulo Braga’s hand and a pen while trying to get him to sign a loan document at a bank branch in Rio de Janeiro. De Souza, a mother of six, said to him: ‘Man, are you listening? You have to sign it. I can’t sign for you’
A bank employee holds Paulo Braga’s head with her hand after he leaned back.
De Souza remains detained as part of the investigations and is accused of attempted robbery by fraud and defamation of a corpse.
Authorities have been investigating whether De Souza was trying to take advantage of Braga, who was hospitalized with pneumonia on April 8 and discharged on April 15.
They are also investigating whether De Souza knew he was going to take his uncle’s body to the bank.
“He went with his uncle to the bank because he realized that he was at the last moment of his life and tried, before he died, to withdraw that money,” the head of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, Fábio Souza, told Fantastico. .
‘However, before reaching the bank, he died. Still, he saw the possibility of withdrawing this money, because it was the last chance he had to withdraw it.’
Érika de Souza (pictured) was arrested by authorities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday after trying to get her dead uncle, Paulo Braga, to sign a loan document at a bank while he sat in a wheelchair .
She had told authorities that she did not know Braga was unconscious until paramedics performed CPR.
“The case has barely begun and there is already a punishment prior to the sentencing decision,” said his lawyer, Ana de Souza. “That is, she is already being punished even before she is convicted, if she is going to be convicted.”
Érika de Souza’s son, Lucas Nunes, revealed that she has been under medication and has attempted suicide on several occasions.
In 2023, a psychiatrist requested his hospitalization because he had become too dependent on sedatives and hypnotics.
‘She has been going through difficult times. She has been experiencing disruption,” Nunes said. She has psychological and psychiatric support.’
The family has claimed that Braga applied for the loan on March 25.
He intended to use the money to repair the house where he lived with Érika de Souza and three of his children.
‘My mother raised six children. And she never needed to steal or deceive anyone to do it,” Nunes added. ‘My mother guided her children towards life, and she guided them very well, teaching us the path of studies, the path of what is correct.’