A Brazilian woman who killed and dismembered her cheating husband nearly a decade ago has recounted the crime in her first interview since her incarceration, saying she still has dreams of his bloody severed head talking to her.
Elize Ramos Kitano Matsunaga, 47, is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Marcos Kitano Matsunaga — CEO and heir to the food company Yoki — on May 19, 2012.
The former nurse shot her 42-year-old husband multiple times in their penthouse apartment in São Paulo and later dismembered the body. She placed his severed remains in plastic bags and scattered them 20 miles away from their home.
In the new Netflix docuseries Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime, the convicted murderer gave a firsthand account of the crime, admitting she still doesn’t know ‘what kind of emotion’ led her to pull the trigger.
Scroll down for video
In her words: Elize Ramos Kitano Matsunaga, 47, is the subject of the new Netflix docuseries Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime, which features her first ever interview
Crime: The Brazilian mother of one is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of her 42-year-old husband Marcos Kitano Matsunaga, heir to the food company Yoki
Elize was interviewed for four-episode series while on furlough from prison in 2019. The mother of one said she wanted to participate in the documentary so her daughter would know her version of events.
‘I respect people’s opinions, first of all. I know there are people who understand what happened, and I know there are people who despise me. I know there are people who judge me. And that’s fine. It’s their opinion,’ she said.
‘But, because I’ve spent all these years away from my daughter, I was scared I wouldn’t meet her again. So I wanted to have the opportunity to tell her what really happened.
‘Look, darling, I tried to be different,’ she told the camera, addressing her daughter. ‘I tried not to make a mistake, but I couldn’t.’
There is no mystery behind the murder; Elize had already confessed to the gruesome crimes. Instead, the documentary features her first interview since she was incarcerated in 2016 and explores how her account differs from the evidence that was laid out by the prosecution at her trial.
Elize’s family members and colleagues were interviewed, as were journalists, defense and prosecution lawyers, and other experts who covered the case.
Looking back: Elize met Marcos while working as a high-end-escort. He was still married to his first wife when they started their affair
The true crime series also looks into her tumultuous upbringing. She grew up poor in Chopinzinho, Paraná, and was abandoned by her father when she was just three years old. Her mother left her in care of her grandparents and aunt until she was 10.
Elize’s reunion with her mother and new stepfather was brief. She said she ran away at age 15 because her stepfather was abusing her.
‘What I went through with my stepfather, I don’t wish that on any woman. I don’t wish that on any person,’ she said in the series.
Elize started training to become a nurse in her early 20s, but she changed her mind and decided she wanted to become a lawyer instead. In order to pay for college, she moved to São Paulo and became a high-end escort.
Marcos was married to his first wife when he met Elize through an escort website. The couple lived together for three years before his divorce was finalized.
After they got married, Elize said she learned he was unfaithful and planned to divorce him, but then she found out she was pregnant with their daughter, Helena.
Early days: Elize and Marcos lived together for three years before his divorce was finalized, and they got married
Fairytale wedding: Marrying Marcos seemed like a dream come true for Elize, who grew up poor and ran away from home at age 15
‘When I broke the news, he cried, apologizing to me. He knelt down, apologized, and said he would never do that again,’ she recalled.
Elize later suspected Marcos was still cheating and hired a private investigator who caught him at a restaurant with his mistress.
On May 19, 2012, Marcos picked up Elize after she and Helene spent three days visiting her sick grandmother. The family and their nanny were seen arriving at their apartment building together.
The last CCTV images of Marcos alive show him kicking the elevator in apparent frustration when he went to pick up pizza in the lobby that night.
The only person who knows for sure what happened to him in his final moments is Elize. According to her, they got into a fight because she confronted him about his mistress, revealing that she had hired a private investigator to follow him.
Hard: After they got married, Elize (pictured in Venice, Italy) said she learned he was unfaithful and planned to divorce him, but then she found out she was pregnant with their daughter
Murder: Elize shot Marcos multiple times in their penthouse apartment in São Paulo, Brazil, on May 19, 2012, after allegedly fighting over his infidelity
Elize claimed that he was furious and slapped her, threatening to take her daughter away from her if she left him. She insisted she was afraid of him when she went to get the gun they kept in a cabinet.
‘My reaction was to leave the room and get the gun because I was scared of what he would do to me,’ she said.
However, one of Marcos’ friends claimed in the docuseries that the business wasn’t violent and wasn’t the type to lose his cool.
Elize said she was about to put the gun back, but then she heard Marcos coming toward her. She alleged that he taunted her and called her names as she pointed the gun at him, saying she didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger.
‘I still can’t tell you what kind of emotion made me pull that trigger. I can’t describe it to you. I felt that, then I pulled the trigger,’ she said. ‘I can’t even tell you what I felt because I saw him collapsing, and at that moment it seemed the world that stopped.’
She recalled seeing her husband in ‘a pool of blood’ and realizing that she killed him, saying: ‘I felt like jumping, screaming, and pulling my hair out. I didn’t know what to do.’
Evidence: The last CCTV images of Marcos alive show him kicking the elevator in apparent frustration when he went to pick up pizza in the lobby on the night he was killed
Gruesome crime: Elize is later seen getting into the elevator with three suitcases — which contained her husband’s remains
Horrific: The former nurse cut the body into seven pieces and put them in plastic bags before scattering them on the side of the road 20 miles away from their home
Elize, who participated in a reenactment of the murder that was featured in the series, estimated she was roughly six feet away from him when she shot him.
However, the autopsy report concluded Marcos was shot at close range because of the burn marks on his skin.
Elize didn’t just shoot her husband; she dragged his body to a guest room and chopped it up into seven parts — the head, two arms, torso, groin, and two legs — and put them in plastic bags over the course of hours.
‘I could only think about hiding it. I have to get him out of here, but how am I going to do it? So, I had the unfortunate idea of dismembering him,’ admitted Elize, who used to hunt with Marcos.
The autopsy report said that Marcos was still alive when his body was cut, but Elize insisted he was dead when she dismembered him.
‘If I had been able to think straight, for just one second there, I would’ve never done it,’ she said of the gruesome act. ‘There isn’t a single moment, a single day, that I don’t think about it. It’s always there, stored in my head. I’ve even dreamed about his head talking to me…his head covered in blood, talking to me.’
Trouble: On June 4, 2012, Elize was arrested after phone records placed her at the exact location Marcus’ remains were found
Guilty: Elize confessed to fatally shooting her husband and cutting up his body to dispose of it
Claims: Elize (pictured at her trial) said she still doesn’t know ‘what kind of emotion’ led her to pull the trigger, but she insisted the murder wasn’t premeditated
The security footage in their building shows Elize getting into the elevator with three suitcases — which contained her husband’s remains.
She tossed his body parts alongside a road outside of São Paulo. Some body parts were never recovered. She then cleaned up their apartment with disinfectant.
When Marcos’ family started to worry following his disappearance, she claimed he had run off with his mistress. However, nine days after his murder, his head and other body parts were discovered, which led to him being identified.
On June 4, 2012, Elize was arrested after phone records placed her at the exact location Marcus’ remains were found. She confessed to fatally shooting him and cutting up his body to dispose of it.
Her trial began in May 2016, with the defense and prosecution painting two wildly different pictures. While Elize’s lawyers argued it was a crime of passion, prosecutors claimed the murder was premeditated.
In the series, Elize denied that the murder was premeditated, saying if she were planning on killing her husband, she would have shot him during a trip to Mato Grosso.
Who to believe? Elize’s trial began in May 2016, with the defense and prosecution painting two wildly different pictures. Her lawyers argued it was a crime of passion
Live in prison: Elize was sentenced to 19 years in prison and is serving out her sentence at Tremembé Women’s Penitentiary
Final take: ‘There are crimes that are way more barbaric than mine, way more shocking than mine, but nobody mentions them,’ Elize said at the end of the series. ‘Nobody talks about them because the victim wasn’t wealthy
‘We went hunting there several times. I would’ve shot him with a .12 gauge in the middle of an indigenous village. I doubt anyone would find him,’ she said. ‘If I had premeditated it, I would have never done it in my own house.’
Elize was sentenced to 19 years in prison and is serving out her sentence at Tremembé Women’s Penitentiary.
‘There are some secrets I’ll take to my grave,’ she said of the mystery of what happened between her and her husband that night.
At the end of the series, Elize suggested the murder only made headlines because her husband was rich.
‘The types of crimes I learned about in prison, there are crimes that are way more barbaric than mine, way more shocking than mine, but nobody mentions them,’ she said. ‘Nobody talks about them because the victim wasn’t wealthy. The victim was an ordinary person. Someone poor.
‘If it had been the opposite, for example, if I had lost my life in this situation, not Marcos, would he be here talking about it?’ she asked. ‘Would there be spotlights on him and people eager to know, “What about the victim, Elize?” Who would I be?’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue82erqxnp6S6orqMsJ%2BoZZ2qv6Wx0Z6bZqCVp3qpwdKbmKecXZm%2Fpq3MrGSamp%2BqwW60yKxkrJ2mmr%2BmsIyhnJqcXamurbfIp55mrJ9itaa%2Bjg%3D%3D