A woman who became a police officer to avenge her father’s murder helped capture his killer 25 years after the crime.
Gislayne Silva de Deus, from Boa Vista in northern Brazil, was just nine years old when her father, Givaldo, was shot dead in a bar over a £20 debt in 1999.
Givaldo’s killer, Raimundo Alves Gomes, took him to the hospital but vanished shortly after.
Gomes was caught, put on trial, and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2013, but he remained free while appealing the verdict. After his final appeal was rejected in 2016, a warrant for his arrest was issued, but he disappeared again.
The news devastated Gislayne, who was now in her late 20s working as a lawyer, along with the rest of Givaldo’s family. “We got used to living with uncertainty, always wondering if we would ever be able to find him,” she said in an interview with Brazilian news outlet G1.
In 2022, Gislayne became a prison officer, saying she had always imagined Gomes would eventually serve his sentence there.
However, her dream remained unfulfilled, even after one of her uncles spotted Gomes in the city where the murder had taken place later that year. Although authorities were alerted, Gomes managed to disappear before they could apprehend him.
Determined to find justice, Gislayne applied to join her state’s Civil Police, becoming a clerk in July this year, and immediately applied to work in the murder unit.
Once in, she helped gather information about Gomes’ whereabouts and issued the formal arrest order.
At 35 years old, Gislayne finally had the chance to confront her father’s killer at the police station and tell him why he had been captured, a moment that was filmed and shared online.
“It’s because of me that you’re here,” she told him, adding, “You’re going to pay for this.”
Gislayne said it took a moment to summon the courage to face him, recalling, “When I saw the man responsible for my dad’s death finally in handcuffs, I couldn’t hold back the tears. It was an explosion of emotions that turned into tears of relief, as it felt like this day would never come.”
“My dad was an honest and hardworking man. He encouraged us to study, and he would help us with our homework and times tables. He was always so close to us and so caring. After we lost him, my sisters and I went through some really tough times. What happened could have taken us down a different path, but our mother always taught us to stay on the right one,” she added.
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