Gislayne Silva de Deus, a 35-year-old police officer from Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil, has finally achieved justice for her father's brutal murder. Ms Deus, just 9 years old at the time, spent more than two decades seeking justice. Now, as a police officer, she tracked down and arrested her father's killer, bringing closure to her family's painful journey. According to Metro, the police officer's father Giraldo Jose Vicente de Deus was shot and killed in February 1999 over a 20-pound debt.
The tragic events unfolded at a local bar, where Mr Deus, a supermarket owner, was playing pool with a friend. At the bar, Raimundo Alves Gomes, one of Deus's suppliers and a convicted murderer, demanded payment for the debt. Despite Deus's offer to settle with a freezer, Gomes refused, leading to an argument between the two. Gomes left the bar only to return with a gun and shot Mr Deus in the head, according to a recount by Brazilian news outlet Nova1.
Gomes was caught, put on trial and sentenced to 12 years in 2013. However, he avoided imprisonment while appealing the verdict. Following the rejection of his final appeal in 2016, an arrest warrant was issued, but Gomes evaded capture and went into hiding.
Determined to find Gomes, Ms Deus started studying law at 18 and later joined the police force. She held various positions, fueled by her resolve to bring her father's killer to justice. Assigned to the General Homicide Division, she then tirelessly tracked down Alves Gomes and found him hiding on a farm in the Nova Cidade region near Boa Vista. He was finally arrested on September 25.
The cop admitted to fantasising about the day her father's killer would serve his sentence behind bars. "When I was a prison [police officer], I always imagined [the killer] arriving there to serve his sentence," she told local media.
Twenty-five years after the brutal murder, she confronted Alves Gomes, now 60, face-to-face. ''It's because of me that you are here. You are now going to pay,'' she told him.
"When I saw the man who was responsible for my dad's death 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 sent us in a different direction, but our mother always taught us to follow the right path,'' she remarked.
On September 26, 2024, Alves Gomes' conviction was upheld by a judge and the killer was sent to prison for 12 years.
