Mother of 55 made her husband’s murder a family affair

Flordelis dos Santos de Souza (61) is a celebrity in Brazil. The former MP not only has 55 children – both biological and adopted. She is also a prominent gospel singer, church founder – and is said to have ordered the murder of her preacher husband. There was now 50 years and 28 days in prison, as the Brazilian media reported on Sunday – after one of the most sensational crimes and trials in Brazil’s history.

Anderson do Carmo († 42) was the name of her husband, who was murdered in 2019 and was also considerably younger than Flordelis. Flordelis had tried to poison him six times with potassium cyanide. Then she hired hitmen – her own family. In June 2019, Do Carmo was shot dead by about 30 gunshots while returning home. The shooter: one of his sons.

The murder plot was to some extent a family affair. Flordelis’ co-defendant, her daughter Simone Rodrigues, has been sentenced to more than 31 years in prison for her involvement in the attempted murder of her father. Son Flavio, who fired the murder weapon, was sentenced to 33 years in prison last year. And his adoptive brother Lucas Cezar was jailed for seven years for helping to buy the murder weapon. Four other people are also involved, including one of Flordelis’ biological and adopted sons. Two of Flordelis’ other children and a granddaughter were acquitted of murder and attempted murder.

devoted mother

The main defendant had protested in court that he knew nothing about the crime. Apparently this was done by people who wanted to protect them from alleged sexual and physical abuse by the evangelical preacher. The court now considers the 61-year-old the mastermind behind the crime, which was supposed to resemble a botched robbery. In the beginning it was about money. The victim “rigidly managed the family fund” and treated certain family members “preference”. It would also involve power over the jointly established evangelical church community, the Ministerio Flordelis.

Flordelis, who gives the church its name, came from the slum of Rio’s favela. She met Do Carmo, 16 years her junior, when he was a teenager. The couple later founded their church together. The pastoral couple became really famous because of their huge family of 55 children, most of them adopted.

Flordelis also enjoyed singing in her nine churches and was considered a devoted mother in the country. That catapulted her into politics. In the 2018 elections to the Brazilian parliament, she won more votes than any other candidate in Rio. According to researchers, as a member of parliament, she would have planned the elimination of Do Carmo. She was stripped of her parliamentary immunity in June 2021. The way was clear for Brazil’s centenary process. (keep)