A Brazilian woman Érika de Souza Vieira wheeled the corpse of her uncle 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga into a bank on Tuesday.
Vieira wanted her dead uncle to sign off on a 17,000 reais ($3,250) loan to her. But she was arrested shortly after entering the bank.
“Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, because I can’t sign for you,” she said in Portuguese in a viral video on X.
Vieira dismissed the complaints of a bank worker who pointed out that the man looked pale and appeared “not well”.
“He is like that. He doesn’t say anything,” Vieira said. “Uncle, do you want to go to the hospital again?”
Police are investigating if there are other relatives involved in the crime.
“She knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours,” the investigating officer, Fábio Luiz Souza, told the breakfast news program Bom Dia Rio on Wednesday.
“I have never come across a story like this in 22 years [as a cop],” added Souza, who said visible signs of livor mortis left no doubt as to Braga’s state.
The police chief Souza said he was also investigating if Vieira was in fact the deceased man’s niece. “Anyone who sees that [footage] can see the person was dead,” he said.
Several clips of Vieira’s daring stunt flooded social media, with many expressing shock at her action.
Reports said Vieira may be charged with fraud and corpse abuse.
