Transcript: 7. The Family Murders at Campo Belo (Suzane von Richthofen) | Brazil

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On Wednesday night, October 30th, 2002, 15-year-old Andreas von Richthofen was having a great time. His older sister Suzane and her boyfriend Daniel had snuck him out of the house and had dropped him off at his local Internet Café near their home in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where all of them usually played online games together. 

This night, however, Suzane and Daniel didn’t stay, so Andreas joined some friends and logged in for a session of gaming. After a couple of hours, the young couple picked Andreas up again and they headed home.

They arrived home between three and four in the morning, hoping to quietly sneak back into the house. But when they arrived, the front door was wide open. In a city like São Paolo where crime is rife, nobody leaves their front door open. 

To their horror, Andreas and Suzane discovered their parents’ bludgeoned bodies, in bed – they had been attacked while they were sleeping. Manfred and Marisia von Richthofen both had towels covering their faces and there was blood all over the bedroom walls. 

On the floor, just out of reach of Manfred’s hand, a revolver laid on the floor, however, no shots had been fired. What happened at this home on Rua Zacarias de Goís? In a single night Suzane and Andreas von Richthofen were orphaned. But who would want to hurt this family?

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The Von Richthofen family was a well-to-do family who lived in a comfortable home in the affluent suburb of Campo Belo in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The home was on a 100 square metre property and was tastefully decorated. In the garden was a pool and staff tending to the property kept it in good shape.

49-year-old Manfred von Richthofen was a naturalized German-Brazilian who worked as an Engineering Director at DERSA – the state company for highway development. Manfred always claimed that he was a descendant of famous World War 1 pilot with the same name: Manfred Albrecht Freiherr Von Richthofen otherwise known as The Red Baron. According to Manfred his grandfather was The Red Baron’s brother. However, the Von Richthofen family in Germany deny that there was link, as the family keeps an active family tree.

Manfred met his wife, Marisia Abdalla in the early 1970’s while the two studied at University of Sao Paolo. After they were married, they went to further their studies in Germany. On his return to Brazil Manfred started working for private engineering companies until he started at Dersa in São Paulo. In this time, Marisia opened her own psychiatry practice and soon became one of the most respected psychiatrists in town. 

In 1983, they had their first child, a daughter the named Suzane. Four years later their son, Andreas, was born. From the outside-in, the Von Richthofens appeared to have a happy family life. They weren’t overly sociable and kept to themselves for the most part. Manfred was quite reserved but Marisia was more outgoing.

Both kids went to Colégio Humbolt, the German school in Sao Pãolo and were good students. According to the principal the Von Richthofen parents were very involved with the kids’ education and were well-known by everyone at school. Both Suzane and Andreas had the best education money could buy.

Suzane was a quiet achiever who didn’t stand out as being different to any of her class mates. By 2001, Suzane was 18 years old and she had a lot going for her. She was beautiful and bright and, of course, rich. She was in her first year of university, studying Law at the Pontifical Catholic University – one of the best colleges in São Paolo. Suzane could speak four languages: Portuguese, German, English and Spanish. She also had a brown belt in karate – that’s the one just before black belt. One might say: Suzane was the whole package. 

Her friends were fond of her and were amused by her love for stuffed animals. She would find any excuse to buy soft toys for her friends: shaped like a love heart, a smiley face or a dice, whatever suited the situation best. She loved hanging out in the local shopping mall, spending her allowance on clothes and accessories.

In his teens, Andreas took up the hobby of flying model airplanes. His instructor, 19-year-old Daniel Cravinhos took him under his wing and would take him bike riding and introduced him to online computer games.

When 17-year-old Suzane Von Richthofen met her little brother’s model airplane instructor the two also became friends. Before long they started a passionate relationship, which was to become the core of conflict in the Von Richthofen home. At first, Manfred and Marisia did not care when Suzane started dating with the family friend. They thought it was a passing fling. 

But over time, the relationship became serious. Manfred and Marisia were worried. To generate income, Daniel would make one or two model planes a month and sell them for just over one thousand dollars. He also maintained and sold parts for hobbyists. Suzane sometimes asked her father for money to lend her boyfriend and showered him with clothes and gifts.

Once the Von Richthofen parents learnt that their daughter’s boyfriend was a habitual marijuana user and noticed that he was reluctant to work or study, they turned against him. The fact that he was from a lower-class background was also a factor and they wanted someone with more ambition for their daughter.

By the time Suzane was 18, she spent most of her time with Daniel. She blew off her high school graduation party to spend the night with her boyfriend. When she attended university, the couple were so close, that Daniel accompanied Suzane’s law school class on an excursion to the Legislative Assembly.  

In his bedroom at his parents’ house, photos of Suzane covered his walls. On his bed was a pillow, imprinted with a photo of her and dozens of soft toys – all gifts from Suzane. 

At the end of 2001, Suzane began to spend the nights with Daniel on the sly. She told her parents that she was going to over to a friend’s place to study. Friends were warned to cover for her in case her parents ever called. One April night, the strategy went awry. Marisia called Suzane's best friend and discovered that her daughter was not sleeping there. When Suzane returned home the next morning, her mother demanded an explanation. Suzane said she spent the night in a motel with Daniel. 

Marisia and Manfred decided to definitively ban the courtship. 

This only made Suzane want Daniel more. He showed her a different side of life, less regimented than the one she grew up in. Daniel had an attitude of ‘anything goes’ and he was fun to be around. When she was with him, Suzane felt free.

A friend close to the Von Richthofens remembered that success was very important to Manfred and Marisia. They encouraged their kids to be achievers, but other than that they were focused on their own work and didn’t have much time for Suzane and Andreas. The friend recalls:

"Since I was little, I always saw Suzane taking care of him."  

Suzane often took Andreas to the Cravinhos home with her. The Von Richthofen kids would then hang out with Daniel and his older brother Christian, who was in his mid-twenties at the time. The four of them liked going to a local cyber café to play online games. Each one had a gaming nickname: Suzane usually logged in as Su or Polar; Andreas was Raptor; Christian, Soldado Cat and Daniel was Kamikaze.

Although the youngsters were just having fun, Manfred and Marisia had good reason to be concerned. Daniel and Christian were known trouble makers in in the neighbourhood where they grew up. It’s a working-class neighbourhood, much rougher than the neighbourhood where Suzane and Andreas were from.

On the street where the Cravinhos family still live, there are ten houses on a narrow walkway. Everyone knows each other, and kids grow up together, playing in the walkway between the houses. Christian and Daniel were known to smoke weed and cause trouble. Christian had been in rehab for his addiction to cocaine and it was speculated around the neighbourhood that he was a police informer.

Elderly neighbours moved away because they couldn’t stand the noise of the brothers playing drums and shouting profanities.  According to the neighbours, the two brothers were destructive, and their parents didn’t do much to rein them in. 

Christian always took his dog to poop in front of another neighbour’s door. When the neighbour had had enough, he took a shovel and carried the poop to the door of the Cravinhos-home. Christian was furious and put an end to the fight by smearing the dog poop all over the neighbour’s car.

This kind of behaviour would have been foreign in the upper-class world of Manfred and Marisia von Richthofen. Although they probably didn’t know exactly what the Cravinhos brothers were up to, they felt Suzane deserved someone better. 

By May 2002, the conflict between Suzane and her parents about her relationship with Daniel was escalating. Manfred and Marisia tried everything… At first, they pressured Suzane to end the relationship, but when she refused, they had to try another approach. Manfred then focussed on Daniel and tried to persuade him to go back to school and learn English. If Daniel could step up to Suzane’s level – the Von Richthofens thought – perhaps then they could be ok with the relationship. But Daniel wasn’t interested. He was young and didn’t have many responsibilities and enjoyed his life. 

In July of the same year, Manfred and Marisia left São Paolo to go Europe for a month. Suzane stayed home and Daniel practically moved in. Suzane loved living with Daniel, so when her parents returned from their holiday, she told them that they were moving in together. She suggested Manfred and Marisia buy her a flat where she would live with Daniel. Obviously, Manfred refused. He did say, however, that Suzane and Daniel could do whatever they wanted, as long as they paid for it themselves, once she has completed her education and found a job. 

The spoilt rich girl and the weed smoking boyfriend did not take this option. It was easier to live off the Von Richthofen’s allowance and hang around in the cyber café, smoking weed and playing games all day. 

Manfred was desperate to get his daughter out of this situation and looked into sending Suzane to Europe to complete her education. When Suzane heard about this, she told her parents that she had broken it off with Daniel. She wanted to alleviate pressure at home but had no intention of actually ending the relationship.

Marisia von Richthofen reportedly told her friends with joy that Suzane had 'gotten rid of Daniel.'

Suzane started seeing Daniel behind her parents’ backs, undoubtedly adding to the excitement of her illicit affair with somewhat of a ‘bad boy’. But Manfred was no fool and he suspected as much. On Saturday the 26th of October 2002 he went to the Cravinhos home where Daniel lived with his parents to look for his daughter. He but he did not find her there, but he was right about them being together. However, there is no way he could have imagined that his daughter wasn’t only lying to him, but that she was planning something far more sinister.

If he only knew what was brewing… The two young lovers did not like to be told what to do and how to live. Sure, the comforts and cash that came with being a Von Richthofen was nice but dealing with Manfred an Marisia became a problem. What if they could fix the problem somehow. They would have liked to keep the money, but it was time for Suzane’s parents to go. 

And that’s when a plan was hatched to kill Manfred and Marisia Von Richthofen. 

On Wednesday morning, October 30th, 2002, Suzane made a point of going about her normal routine. She attended Law School, in class 208 on the second floor of the Pontifical Catholic University, at Rua Monte Alegre, in Perdizes. Like every Wednesday, she attended classes in Sociology and Foundations of Public Law. Her behaviour was normal, she was calm and quiet and didn’t draw much attention to herself.

Daniel was in charge of providing weapons for the planned attack. He found two hollow iron bars which he modified himself: he filled them with wood making them heavier. This would be more effective in executing their victims.

On the night of October 30th, the murderous plan was set into motion. Around 9:30 pm Suzane left her parents’ home in Campo Belo and drove to Daniel’s family home. The couple took a cocktail of marijuana, paint-thinner and glue and went over their plan one last time. They then went to the Von Richthofen home to sneak Suzane’s younger brother, the 15-year-old Andreas, out of the house, so as to get him out of the way.

Sometime after 11 pm, Andreas von Richthofen, who was unaware of the murder plot, snuck out and met his sister and her boyfriend who were waiting outside in Suzane’s Volkswagen Golf. They dropped Andreas at the Red Play Internet Café, where he met up with some friends for a night of gaming. They arranged to pick Andreas up later. Andreas didn’t think this was strange – in fact, as a 15-year-old kid, he thought his sister and her boyfriend were doing him a favour, helping him to sneak out in the middle of the night to go and play games with his friends.

Like most days, Christian Cravinhos was at the very same Red Play Internet Café from around 10 am till around 11 pm. He left before Andreas arrived to wait for Suzane and Daniel at a pre-determined location.

While Andreas assumed the life of his gaming persona, Raptor, Daniel and Suzane picked up Christian who was ready and waiting. High on obsessive love and drugs, they were on their way to execute the plan that was two months in the making.

When the trio arrived at the Von Richthofen home around midnight, Suzane opened the garage door with her remote control and parked her car in the garage. She gave Daniel and Christian surgical gloves, so they wouldn’t leave any fingerprints. They wore pantyhose on their heads to prevent head hair from falling out and placing the brothers at what was about to become a crime scene. 

Daniel and Christian waited outside while Suzane went inside. As she entered the home, she punched in the code to disarm the house alarm and went upstairs to check if her parents were asleep. What went through her head as she saw the people who gave her life and loved her, breathing their last breaths, only she would know. She was not about to change her mind, though. She proceeded down the hall and switched on the light to signal the Cravinhos brothers that the coast was clear. Then Daniel and Christian entered the home through a door that Suzane unlocked carrying modified iron bars – ready to launch their brutal attack.

At 12:15 midnight, the Cravinhos brothers went upstairs while Suzane von Richthofen waited downstairs. Christian went to Marisia’s side of the bed while Daniel towered over a sleeping Manfred. The attack began, the young brothers beating on the Von Richthofen couple with the intent to kill. 

Marisia had severe defensive wounds showing she tried her best to fend off her attacker. After receiving multiple blows to the head, a strange sound was coming from Marisia. If a head injured victim lose consciousness, they can lose muscle tone in their jaw and the tongue obstructs the airway, causing a loud and disturbing snoring sound.

The brothers were panicking: what was happening? Daniel ran to the bathroom and came back with two wet towels. The brothers covered their victim’s faces in an attempt to drown-out the sounds. It didn’t work. Daniel ran downstairs to the kitchen and returned with a pitcher of water and set to drowning them with it.

That worked for Manfred who died first, but not for Marisia. Daniel and Christian tied her head into a plastic bag until she finally expired.

When all was quiet, and the horrendous task was done, the Cravinhos-brothers went downstairs to where Suzane was waiting. When she saw them, Suzane simply said: “Done?”

Christian was freaking out about what they had just done, but Suzane consoled him by saying:

“Calm down, Chris. Stay calm. You did not take anything from me. You gave me a new life.”

Christian pulled himself together and the evil trio carried out the next phase of their plan. They ransacked the house, staging a burglary. The brothers knew exactly where all the valuables were, as Suzane had told them in the days before the murder. They took jewellery and $8,000 cash from Manfred’s briefcase. Daniel went upstairs to Manfred and Marisia’s room and placed Manfred’s 38 calibre revolver, that Manfred hid in the false bottom of a bathroom drawer, within reach of his hand. Suzane headed into her dad’s library and spread papers and documents around. 

The job was done, just as they had planned – it was time to leave the Von Richthofen home and secure an alibi. Suzane and Daniel dropped Cristian at a McDonalds near the apartment where he lived with his grandmother. En route, they threw away a garbage bag with the iron bars, surgical gloves, pantyhose and the clothes Daniel and Christian wore during the attack.

Then Suzane and Daniel went to Motel Colonial in São Paolo’s South Zone and booked themselves into a luxurious presidential suite for $380. They had a snack, smoked a joint and went for a swim. Just before 03 am Suzane and Daniel left the motel.  

At Red Play Café, online gamer “Raptor” (well, Andreas von Richthofen) signed out at 2:55 am, just before he was picked up by his sister and her boyfriend. What Andreas didn’t know, is that he was only another pawn in their plan. Both his parents were dead, and they were about to discover their bodies. As they arrived home, the alarm was disarmed, and the doors were open – it was obvious that there had been a robbery. In Daniel Cravinhos stepped in and called the police at 4:09 am. 

Police arrived moments later and they all entered the home together. That is when officers discovered the bodies of Manfred and Marisia von Richthofen. 

From the get-go, police felt that the incident at the Von Richthofen home was an inside job. Something about the burglary didn’t seem right. There were no signs of forced entry, in fact the house alarm was disarmed. 

Only selected things were taken, but all electronics like computers and cell phones were still in the house. All four cars were still in the garage. If it were a burglary, police felt, there is no way intruders would have left a prized item like Manfred’s revolver behind. Then there was the library… It simply didn’t feel authentic, it looked staged with papers being spread around the room rather neatly. 

The fact that the victims’ faces were covered made police believe that the attackers were known to the victims. Police learnt about a former family maid who had been fired and had threatened the Von Richthofens. But her involvement in the crime was dismissed after extensive police interrogation.

Andreas took the news of his parents’ murder quite badly, but Suzane didn’t seem too fazed about the tragedy she found herself in. The day after Manfred and Marisia’s murders, Suzane and Daniel were seen in the swimming pool of the family home. 

Police decided to keep an eye on the young couple. Within a week of her parents’ death Suzane enquired if she could sell the house. She seemed to be more concerned about the inheritance than the funeral. In fact, police discovered that Suzane and Daniel were planning to start a business with the inheritance left by their parents.

On the day of Manfred and Marisia’s funeral, Suzane was suitably distressed in front of family and friends. But hours after the funeral, she happily celebrated her 19th birthday with friends at the home where her parents were murdered. 

But her behaviour wasn’t enough to warrant an arrest. Police knew Suzane and Daniel were involved in the murder, but they had to prove it. With all eyes on the couple and Christian Cravinhos, it came to their attention that Christian had bought a motorbike on October 31st – just ten hours after the crime was committed. He bought a Suzuki 1,100 horsepower for $3,600, paying in $100 American Dollar bills. 

He was so sure he would never be caught that he did not bother to hide the bike. Days after the crime, a team of investigators passed Daniel Cravinhos’ house and saw the motorcycle. Suzane was outraged when she heard about Christian’s purchase, realising that it could draw attention to them. This led to a huge argument between Daniel and Suzane, who then decided to end the relationship with him. 

On Thursday, November 7th, police picked Christian up from his home, saying they needed his help in identifying a suspect. He went to the police station and never left. After six hours of interrogation, Christian tripped himself up so many times, that he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore. He even gave three versions about buying the bike until he admitted that he bought it with his own money. At that moment, his father, Astrogildo Cravinhos de Paula e Silva, left the room, overwhelmed, realising that his son was guilty.

Police went to the Von Richthofen house to interview Suzane. Her brother, Andreas, was sleeping on a wooden bench downstairs. Suzane denied any involvement in the crime until a policeman threatened that, if she did not confess, he would also go after Andreas.

"Suzane told it all," recalls one of the policemen present at the interrogation.

By November 9th, less than two weeks after the double murder, Suzane von Richthofen, and Daniel and Christian Cravinhos were all in police custody. Andreas was distraught: he had just lost everybody in his family: both his parents were dead, and his sister was going to jail. Daniel and Christian, who were like older brothers to Andreas, were also going away for a long time.

He reportedly told his sister:

'Su, I lost my father, my mother. I do not want to lose my sister. I forgive you and I will stay with you.”

But Brazilian law is such that, if an individual isn’t apprehended in the commission of a crime (red-handed so to speak), it’s likely they will be released from custody while awaiting trial under house arrest – and that’s what happened with Suzane von Richthofen. It would be almost six years before the case would make it to trail.

The day before she arrived home, vandals spray painted the word "bitch" on the wall of the Von Richthofen’s family home.

For the moment, Suzane was free and even launched a lawsuit to take over complete control of her parents’ estate. The estate was valued to more than five million US Dollars. She might have won it, too, if investigators hadn’t feared for her brother’s safety when they found a revolver hidden inside a teddy bear in Suzane’s room.

The murder of Manfred and Marisia was in the media spotlight in Brazil for a significant period of time. People struggled to reconcile the brutality of the crime with the seemingly quiet, upper middle-class girl. She was always doing well at school and was popular with her classmates. What could have driven her to commit such a heinous crime? It made more sense for the public to blame the drug-addicted, under-employed and uneducated Cravinhos brothers. 

The public was divided: was Suzane the evil mind behind the killings, or was she just going along with a plan hatched by the Cravinhos brothers? Suzane denied being the mastermind, claiming she went along with the plan because she didn’t want to lose her boyfriend. She didn’t deny involvement, but certainly did not own up to being the driving force. In a televised interview, she said:

"It was a competition of ideas, I was part of it, but the three of us figured it out. I think Cristian knew less about the situation, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for Daniel and me. It's part of my life, my story and I regret it.”

Many people wanted to believe that Suzane was under Daniel’s spell. That it was nothing but bad judgement on her part that made her go along with the plot. There was an article which tried to explain Suzane through German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt’s theory of the “Banality of evil”. It implies that there wasn’t an inherent evil lurking in Suzane, but rather a sense of thoughtlessness that led to the murder of her parents. A disconnect between plan and the actual brutality of the deed. In Arendt’s controversial book Eichmann in Jerusalem, she concludes that: 

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” 

Suzane’s lawyer, professed family friend of the Von Richthofens, Denivaldo Barni, used this angle to portray Suzane as an innocent young girl who was led astray. He said that Suzane had no motive at all, she was forced into an unthinkable situation by Daniel, who she adored like a god.

But Barni overplayed his hand. Many people had sympathy for Suzane and believed that she was as much of a victim of this crime as a perpetrator. In April 2006, Barni arranged a television interview to gain more sympathy for Suzane. For the interview, she wore a pink Minnie Mouse T-shirt and had colourful hairclips. She looked more like a little girl than the 23-year old femme fatale she had become. 

During the interview, Suzane was crying, clinging to the arm of her lawyer, saying that Daniel had destroyed her family and taken everything away from her: her “most precious family”. She also claimed that Daniel made her take drugs all the time.

The next day interview resumed, this time with Suzane wearing a T-shirt with a cute Panda bear print. Unaware that the microphone was already on, her lawyer Denivaldo Barni, took her aside and instructed her how to behave in front of the camera and what to say about her ex-boyfriend. The news crew recorded Barni saying:

“Start to cry and say you do not want to talk anymore.”

This interview damaged Suzane’s credibility so badly, her defence team would never recover. As for Barni’s argument that Suzane had no motive to kill her parents… Her claims into the Von Richthofen   opened up a whole other can of worms. 

Although the declared net worth of the Richthofen family was over five million dollars, authorities suspected there was more. Two Swiss bank accounts were opened by Manfred von Richthofen in November 2001 in his daughter, Suzane’s name when she turned 18. They estimated the accounts had a combined balance of at least 10 million Euro. 

The source of this money is believed to be the result of corruption at DERSA, the company where Manfred was Director of Engineering. The company was responsible for the construction of Mario Covas Beltway – one of the largest infrastructure projects in São Paolo in recent history. This project, originally budgeted to cost around 340 million US Dollar, in fact ran to over 1 billion Dollar by the time it was complete. 

The Public Prosecutor's Office received documents from an anonymous source with evidence of transactions made by an engineering company in São Paulo, named MAVR Engenharia, registered in the name of Manfred Albert von Richthofen. The official address of the MAVR is nextdoor to the Von Richthofen family house in Campo Belo. The documents showed cash deposits into two Swiss Bank Accounts. However, the investigation was shelved because of a lack of evidence. 

Due to a considerable backlog of cases in the Brazilian justice system, the trial started in July of 2006, almost four years after the double murder of Manfred and Marisia Von Richthofen.

Suzane Von Richthofen, Daniel Cravinhos and Christian Cravinhos were all facing First Degree Murder charges. 200 people filed into the courtroom to witness this high profile trial.

At this point, Suzanne and Daniel had been broken up for about four years. Suzane blamed Daniel for her parents’ murder and both the Cravinhos brothers blamed Suzane for orchestrating the crime.

In court, Suzane was very cool and calculating and didn’t show much emotion. At one occasion, she even started to laugh. While the Cravinhos brothers, on the other hand, were crying most of the time. 

It was Christian Cravinhos’ decision to purchase a motorcycle hours after the murder that brought him under suspicion. After his arrest, Christian cooperated with investigators and his account of the murder was what started the investigation into Suzane and Daniel. However, prosecutors argued that Christian was much older than Suzane and Daniel and – as the older sibling he could have and should have convinced them not to go ahead with the murder. 

When Daniel Cravinhos took the stand he said that he had committed the killings alone, his brother didn’t kill anyone.

He claimed that, one year into his relationship with Suzane, she told him she wanted to kill her parents. According to Daniel, Suzane was physically abused by her father. He said that Andreas von Richthofen knew that his sister was scared of her dad. Andreas would go to her room to prevent Manfred from violating Suzane. 

In his testimony, he told the story of a barbeque at the Von Richthofen house he attended with Suzane. He claimed that when Suzane asked if she could have ice cream, Marisia threw something at her head in response.

Daniel carried on, saying that both Manfred and Marisia had extra-marital affairs. He claimed that they were alcoholics and would punish their children whenever they were drunk. 

This could not be further from the truth. There was nothing other than Daniel’s testimony to indicate that the Von Richthofens abused their children, had affairs or were alcoholics. Andreas von Richthofen publicly denied the abuse allegations. The autopsy reports detected no trace of alcohol in Manfred or Marisia’s bodies.

Daniel pushed ahead with his testimony, throwing Suzane under the bus, so to speak. He said she smoked weed and used heavier drugs too. He only started using drugs while they were dating. Whenever she was high, she would talk about how she wanted to kill her parents. One idea was to burn down the family home while they were sleeping, another plan was to cut the brakes to her parents’ cars. 

In the end she persuaded him and Christian to beat her parents to death. He said, on the night of the murder, after Suzane let him and his brother into the house, she told him to be quiet, that they were making a lot of noise. 

In a chilling account he recalled when he had entered the room, Suzane had already run down the stairs. She did not want to hear, or even know what happened. After he had rendered Manfred unconscious, he said:

“Dona Marisia turned. I ran off to the other side and went to Dona Marisia as well. My brother couldn’t get it done. He stood still.” 

Daniel explained that they left the faces of Manfred and Marisia covered so Andreas von Richthofen did not have to see his disfigured parents.

Daniel Cravinhos stated that days after the murder, Suzane said that he and his brother were 'immature and irresponsible' and that she should not have trusted them to kill her parents. It was during this argument that Suzane broke off their relationship.

The jury had quite a bit to digest after Daniel’s confessions. Although the stories of abuse and alcoholism were untrue, it only put a question mark on the issue of motive. Daniel never denied committing the murders – in fact he confessed to killing both Manfred AND Marisia. 

The whole nation waited to hear Suzane Von Richthofen’s testimony. This was the only time during the trial when she showed any emotion, giving a tearful account of what happened in the early morning hours of October 31st 2002.  

She paints a picture of herself as a naïve young girl, consumed with love for her boyfriend. Commenting on Daniel’s accusations about her father abusing her, she said:

“My father, in the midst of discussion, slapped me in the face, something he had never done, never raised his my hand to me.”

According to Suzane, the idea to kill her parents came from Daniel after this incident. 

“[Daniel] tried in every way to destroy that beautiful image I had of my father. In fact, I wanted to be close to him and that my parents would accept him. But that was something that could not happen. He was showing me day after day that I did not have that option: either it was him or my parents.”

She told the court her version of what happened when they arrived at the Von Richthofen home that fateful night:

“We got home, I went inside, went to my parents' bedroom, they were asleep. Then I went down, turned on the light. I told them they could go.

And I sat on the couch with my hands covering my ears… I did not want my parents to die. I did not want it. But then I realized that there was nothing I could do. That it was too late.”

While waiting for the jury of seven members to reach their verdict, Daniel and Christian’s mother, Nadja Cravinhos spoke to the press:

“I think this justice is necessary. It hurts, but it is necessary. So, I pray to God that this justice imposed by men is in the right measure, of the guilt of each one.”

Prosecution suggested a prison term of 50 years for each of the accused. When the verdict came in, Suzane Von Richthofen and Daniel Carvinhos received 40 years in prison, while for his part Christian was sentenced to 39 years. 

Prosecutor Roberto Tardelli said: 

Suzane wanted to “get her hands on the money and assets her parents had worked so hard to obtain", she "wanted her freedom and independence without having to work for it… These are two young people who have acted selfishly, ambitiously. They killed without mercy. And that other one who united for stupidity, for money for gain, which is a defect of the human soul.”

Because of her notoriety, Suzane von Richthofen was placed in solitary confinement for seven months, for her own protection from other inmates. 

In 2009, Suzane tried to get her sentence changed to house arrest. Her appeal was denied.

She tried again, two years later, with the same result.

After Suzane’s arrest, Andreas went to live with his grandmother, Marisia’s mom, Lourdes Abdalla and his uncle Miguel Abdalla. His grandmother tried her best to maintain the same routine Andreas had before his parents were killed. They didn’t discuss the murder as the memory of that night, still brought too much pain with it. 

Andreas was crucified by the media after writing a letter to a local newspaper, which read:

“Not only did I forgive my sister Su, but I still love her. Now, especially, it is the moment she most needs love. In spite of the pain, I am sure that our parents have forgiven her. Just yesterday I heard a phrase that struck me: humanity must walk together in search of the civilisation of love.”

In the early days of her incarceration, Andreas visited Suzane by himself. The family did not wish to see her.

Daniel and Christian Cravinhos were sent to the same prison, but were held in separate units. Daniel still burnt a torch for Suzane, despite what had played out in court. In his jail cell he made a mural with photos of his family and Suzane. At this time he constantly asked about Suzane and swore that his love for her would be eternal. 

Andreas von Richthofen was left alone, and recovered from the loss by hitting the books. With the support of his extended family and friends, he managed to complete his doctorate in Chemistry from his parents’ alma mater, University of São Paolo.

People close to Andreas were concerned about his safety, as he stood to inherit half of the Von Richthofen  . Prosecutor Tardeli warned that this fact would be enough reason for Suzane to strike again. He suggested that Andreas made a public statement, ensured he had a will excluding Suzane and leave Brazil for his own safety.

After this recommendation, Andreas wrote another letter a local newspaper. It is clear that his blind loyalty to his sister had waned in the preceding years:

"I understand that your anger and indignation toward these three murderers is immense and much of society shares that feeling. And me too. It's disgusting.”

Andreas also wanted to address the rumours of Manfred’s corruption and the alleged Swiss bank accounts:

“ If there are accounts abroad… present the evidence, show them what they are and where they are, because I also want to know and understand that your position and prestige fully qualify for it. But if this is nothing more than malicious rumours and there is no evidence, may you retract [the allegations] and keep quiet about it, so as not to let the baseness and cruelty of this crime erroneously stain the reputation of people who are no longer here to defend themselves, my parents Manfred and Marisia von Richthofen.”

In 2011, Andreas sued his sister for her half of the inheritance, including the money paid-out on her parents’ life insurance. He won. $300,000 of Manfred’s life insurance was paid to Andreas. 

However, the Swiss bank accounts that Manfred Von Richthofen opened are in Suzane’s name, nothing prevents her from gaining access to the money after serving her sentence. Her lawyer and self-elected family friend, Denivaldo Barni, maintains by her side, ensuring that she will be eligible to get her money once she is free.

Andreas is sceptical about his sister’s lawyer and at best he can only define Suzane’s relationship with this man as ‘strange’.

"If this Barni was really my father's friend, how had I never heard of him before the crime?" 

That is not the only strange relationship in Suzane’s post-murderous life. Suzane started dating her cell mate Sandra Regina Luz, also known as Sandra Bleed. Luz was sentenced to 27 years for the kidnap and murder of a 14 year old teenager, Tallison de Castro, her neighbour. His dad was a steakhouse manager, so Sandra kidnapped the kid, held him for ransom for less than a thousand US Dollars, which she received. 

As a couple Suzane Von Richthofen and Sandra Luz, they were given the privilege of sharing a cell. In order to be able to sleep with her partner in a section for couples, Suzane had to sign a what they call “a document of affectionate relationship recognition”. In Tremembe Prison, this paper is as powerful as a marriage certificate. But when Sandra was moved to another prison their relationship eventually ended. 

Suzane refocused her energy and decided to complete her studies. In an interview with Marie Claire she said she dreamt of starting a family and being a mother. 

“I made a mistake, I'm paying for it and I want to restart my life.” 

Under Brazilian Law, once inmates have served one sixth of their sentence and have a good behaviour record, they are granted temporary release in a programme called  “Semi-aberto”, Portuguese for ‘half-open’, granting inmates more freedom. The inmate has more liberty inside the prison, but it also entitles inmates to six temporary exits from prison for occasions such as Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas and New Year. Inmates are released to their families to spend time together and be supported by them. 

When Brazilian press caught wind of Suzane being granted temporary release for Mother’s Day, it sparked an outrage. Nobody knew where she spent Mother’s Day, but a television news crew went to Suzane’s mother, Marisia’s grave and found no flowers. 

The Cravinhos brothers were granted the ‘half-open’ programme as well. During one temporary leave, Christian Cravinhos hooked up with an old girlfriend and she fell pregnant. He was excited to become a father and made resolutions to become a better person, someone his daughter could be proud of. 

Romance was also on the cards for Daniel Cravinhos who met and fell in love with his cellmate’s sister, beautiful young scientist, Aline da Silva. On his Mother’s Day exit, they spent the day together. In August, during his Father’s Day exit, he proposed to Aline and by Christmas they were married. Daniel was released in January 2018 after serving 15 years in prison and is rebuilding his life with his wife and new family.

Daniel’s brother Christian was released from prison in August 2017. In April 2018, after seven months and 24 days of freedom, Christian Cravinhos, then 42, returned to prison accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend and attempting to bribe police to look the other way. 

In 2016 Suzane reportedly started an affair with a divorced 37-year-old man called Rogerio Olberg. But since they started dating, Suzane’s half-open programme has been revoked, due to her not complying with disciplinary requirements of the prison.

15 years after the murder of her parents, Suzane's defence asks that Suzane serve the remainder of her sentence in prison. It is not clear why they requested this, probably due to public pressure and concerns about her safety once she’s released. When a news crew asked random people on the streets of São Paolo if they knew who Suzane von Richthofen was, every single one knew: she’s the one who killed her parents. What she did is unforgivable.

Suzane has not seen her brother Andreas since 2006. 

"I know that my brother suffered a lot, but how he spent these years, I do not know. If I have suffered [in prison] in the past, I imagine him outside. When he says his surname, anyone recognizes him, and he will have to carry it forever "

Despite successfully completing is studies and winning the lawsuit to attain his inheritance against his sister, Andreas has become somewhat of a tragic figure. Footage of a drugged-up Andreas being chased by police after he attempted to break into a house in the South Zone of São Paolo shows that all is not well with him. After this incident, which his uncle, Miguel Abdalla, claimed was a result of emotional distress, he was taken in to a psychiatric hospital where he receives ongoing care.

This is not a story with a happy ending and one cannot help but wonder how different life would have been for this intelligent young man who – at one point – had the love and support of two parents who would have helped him have a prosperous adulthood.

Today, Suzane von Richthofen is stuck working in the prison uniform factory, where they make uniforms. She has become quite the inspiration for memes, photoshopped pictures of her face onto “Orange is the new Black” posters are floating around on social media. 

An employee at the cemetery where Marisia and Manfred are buried said he has never seen anyone visit their graves. Scenes of grieving children and relatives are long forgotten, but the scar of this crime will be on the minds of the people of São Paolo forever. 

If you’d like to read more about this case, have a look at the resources used for this episode in the show notes. 

This was The Evidence Locker. Thanks for listening!

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