Suitcase case: advertising executive confesses to being inspired by a 1928 crime.
Ricardo Jardim, 65, was arrested in Porto Alegre.
247 - Advertising executive Ricardo Jardim, 65, arrested this Friday (5) in Porto Alegre, admitted to the Civil Police of Rio Grande do Sul that he killed and dismembered his girlfriend in early August. According to a report by MetropolisHe stated in his testimony that he was inspired by the so-called "Suitcase Crime," a famous case that occurred in São Paulo in 1928, to carry out the concealment of the body.
According to Detective Mario Souza, director of the Homicide Department, the femicide occurred on August 9th. Four days later, part of the victim's remains were abandoned in plastic bags on a deserted street in the Santo Antônio neighborhood, in the eastern part of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. A week later, Jardim placed the woman's torso inside a suitcase and left it in a luggage storage facility at the Porto Alegre bus station.
Confession and modus operandi
In his confession, the suspect stated that he copied the method from the historical case of 1928, when Giuseppe Pistone, an Italian immigrant residing in São Paulo, killed his wife Maria Féa and hid her body in a suitcase. Pistone amputated the victim's knees and broke her neck to fit her into the suitcase, which was to be shipped to France on a ship. The plan was discovered after the suitcase fell during boarding and emitted a strong odor, revealing the crime.
According to the Civil Police, the parallel drawn by Ricardo Jardim reinforces the coldness with which the murder was planned. Detective Mario Souza detailed that the suspect attempted to hinder the investigation by scattering body parts in different locations.
Preventive detention
The preventive detention order was issued early Friday morning. With the suspect already in custody, the police are working to complete the collection of evidence and clarify the circumstances of the femicide.
The case, due to its brutality and its connection to one of the most emblematic crimes in Brazilian criminal history, has reignited debates about violence against women and the recidivism profile of convicted murderers — Jardim had already been sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2018 for killing his own mother, a crime committed in 2015.
