A businessman in Rio de Janeiro has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for strangling an 18-year-old woman and feeding her remains to two pitbulls after she rejected his romantic advances.
Qiu Zhaohu, who owned a noodle stall in the neighbourhood, committed the murder in June 2025. The victim, Marcelle Julia Araujo da Silva, had known Zhaohu for ten years and was 20 years his junior.
Murder and Discovery
The prosecution said Marcelle rejected Zhaohu's advances as she wanted to remain friends. Zhaohu invited her to his home, insisting she collect a Valentine's Day gift basket in person.
CCTV footage showed Zhaohu pushing a large wheelbarrow with blue tarpaulin from his property. Marcelle's mutilated remains were later found wrapped in blue tarpaulin at another property owned by the businessman in the northern part of the city.
Arrest and Sentencing
Zhaohu admitted to police that he had strangled the woman. A witness in court said they had seen Zhaohu send a message reading: "I've already killed her, now I'm going to kill myself."
After questioning, Zhaohu attempted to flee Rio de Janeiro but was arrested in Carapicuíba, in the state of São Paulo.
During sentencing, Judge Elizabeth Machado Louro said: "This is yet another classic episode of femicide, among those that arrive at this court almost daily, on an epidemic scale. The mere fact of handing the victim's body over to the ravenous appetite of pit bull dogs horrifies and repulses any ordinary person."
The judge stated the sentence should serve a preventive and educational purpose, as the case highlighted the need to fight violence against women.
