Former fighter accused of using shopping trolley to dump wife's body

A former professional cage fighter has been accused of shooting his wife dead in front of their baby son.

Luis Paulo Lima dos Santos allegedly gunned down his 26-year-old wife — teacher Ellida Tuane Ferreira da Silva Santos — at their home in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The gym owner had initially told police she vanished on her way to Tiete Bus Station to catch a bus to Campinas, Sao Paulo State, to visit her mother.

But he was arrested on Wednesday after Ellida's body was found wrapped in plastic and dumped near a stream in Sao Paulo's Itaquera neighbourhood two days earlier. Police said she had been shot four times and her hands and feet had been bound.

CCTV footage from the couple's apartment block apparently shows the ex-fighter using a shopping trolley to wheel his wife's body to the family car, police say. It is alleged he used the car to transport the body to the creek.

Police claim he left the building in the early hours of November 6 with the body and returned home four hours later with his baby son. Residents in the apartment block where the couple lived later told officers they heard gunshots but did not think of reporting it at the time.

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Ellida's brother, Valdir Anderson Lima, took to social media to claim that Dos Santos had lunch with his wife's family after allegedly murdering her. "There are indications that the motive was jealousy, but this needs to be investigated in more depth," police chief Bruno Cogan told local media.

Ellida and Dos Santos had been together for three years and got married in September 2021. Their six-month-old son is currently with his paternal grandmother as the investigation continues.

Newsflash/Australscope

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