The man who found Eliza Samudio's long-lost passport in a Portuguese apartment has revealed why he contacted Brazilian media before handing it over to authorities, aiming to publicize the discovery. The document has now been sent to Brazil for her family.
In a follow-up to the discovery of Eliza Samudio's passport reported last week, the unidentified renter who found it in a Portuguese apartment shared more details with Brazil's Domingo Espetacular program.
The passport, issued May 9, 2006, and valid until May 8, 2011, was spotted on a bookshelf while he fetched laundry. It bears a single entry stamp dated May 1, 2007. 'When I went to take a shower, I went to get clothes from the line and saw some books there. Out of curiosity, I looked at a book and saw the passport. I picked it up, opened it, and immediately knew whose it was,' he recounted.
Rather than immediately alerting police, he first approached media in Portugal and then Brazil. 'I tried with the outlets here in Portugal first. My intention was always to hand it over to the police. But if I deliver this document directly to the police here, you in Brazil wouldn't know... No one,' he said. He briefly speculated on her survival due to no body ever being found but called it 'just speculation.'
The passport was anonymously delivered to the Brazilian consulate in Lisbon and is en route to Brazil for the family, per Itamaraty. Eliza's family's lawyer and godmother to her son Bruninho, Maria do Carmo dos Santos, questioned its pristine condition after nearly 18 years: 'The passport, let's suppose it was lost almost 18 years ago, it's better preserved than mine rotting in the drawer... That's strange.' She condemned renewed speculation: 'Every time this is stirred and doubts are raised that it was a scam by Eliza and so on, it's cowardly to the mother and the victim.'
Background: Eliza Samudio, a model murdered in 2010 by footballer Bruno Fernandes (convicted and later conditionally released), had her body concealed and never found. For full initial discovery details, see prior article in this series.
