"I thought you would come yesterday, I killed him!"
Marcelo Costa de Andrade, a.k.a. "The Vampire of Niterói", is a Brazilian cannibalistic, necrophilic serial killer and rapist.
Background
Born to poor immigrants from the northeast region of Brazil, Andrade lived most of his childhood in Rio de Janeiro. He was constantly abused and beaten by his father, who was also violent towards his mother, a housekeeper. Andrade was eventually sent to live with his grandparents, who were also abusive and violent. Years later, he traveled back to Rio de Janeiro and began to live with his abusive stepparents. To make the situation worse, Andrade was raped and almost killed by an older man, who tried to strangle him. He was then sent to a boarding school, where he was bullied. At the age of fourteen, Andrade was kicked out of the boarding school, and he subsequently began to work as a prostitute. During that time, Andrade tried to commit suicide but failed. After escaping from the FUNABEM, a prison for juvenile delinquents, he met with another homosexual man and began to live with him, but continued his prostitution. He eventually left his partner and returned to live with his family, leaving prostitution to work as a pamphleteer. Andrade frequented church and was told by a preacher that children go to heaven when they die. As a result, this sparked an interest in killing children, as he believed that killing adults was wrong because he would be sending them to Hell. According to his mother, Andrade had a strange habit of hearing an audio recording of his younger brother crying.
Murders, Arrest and Instutionalization
Andrade's first victim was an unnamed boy, who was strangled with his T-shirt and had his teeth and shorts removed, with the shorts being taken as a trophy. Andrade proceeded to kill many other children, including Odair dos Santos. Andrade met Santos at a bus stop and invited him to come to his house so his aunt could give him money. However, he took Santos to an abandoned football field, where he raped and strangled him to death. After killing him, he went to his house and convinced his mother to give him a machete. He then returned to the field and decapitated the body with it. His last known victims were Ivan and Altair de Medeiros. Andrade promised to give them money and the brothers followed Andrade to a beach, where he tried to kiss Ivan while he was asleep but Altair intervened. In response, Andrade smashed Altair's head against a rock and forced him to watch his brother being raped and strangled to death. In fright, Altair agreed to do whatever Andrade said.
Andrade fell in love with the boy because of his passive personality and green eyes. He took Altair to a gas station, where he cleaned the boy's wound, and they both spent the night at a forest behind the station, where Altair was repeatedly raped by Andrade. The next day, Andrade took Altair to his workplace, where the latter managed to escape. He returned to his home but did not tell anything to his mother, fearing she would beat him. The police eventually learned about Altair's encounter with Andrade and he took them to Andrade's workplace, where they found him sitting in a chair and eating a packed lunch. After being arrested, Andrade said that he waited for the police to come and arrest him, while claiming that the sex with Altair was consensual; because of the trauma he had suffered at hands of Andrade, Altair subsequently became very ill and died. In his house, police found the machete that Andrade used to dismember Santos' body; he eventually confessed to raping and murdering other children. At the time of his arrest, Andrade was compared to fellow serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. He was then diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, schizophrenia, a low IQ, and psychopathic tendencies along with other severe mental illnesses. He was declared not guilty by reason of insanity and is currently being held at the Henrique Roxo Psychiatric Hospital.
Modus Operandi
"I did not notice if he was alive or dead when i raped him. It could not satisfy me. I squeezed his throat once more to ensure that his soul went to heaven"
Before attacking, Andrade would stalk some his victims for an unknown amount of time because they reminded him of himself as a child. His victims were lower-class boys aged 6-13, because he stated that young boys were beautiful and had a soft skin. He would then lure the boys to non-populated areas, such as beaches, hills, or sewer tunnels. There, he would rape and strangle them, mostly with their own T-shirts. Alternatively, he would smash their heads with rocks to drink the blood coming out of it, thinking he would become beautiful like them. After killing them, he would take their clothing as trophies and sometimes engage in acts of cannibalism and necrophilia with the bodies. He would also return to the crime scenes and bring food with him in order to feed his victims' spirits. According to him, he once cut off the head of one of his victims' bodies, so he could be bullied in Heaven by other children.
Known Victims
Odair José Munis dos Santos
"The sadism went to my head. I ended up killing some of them... I do not remember their faces very well."
- Unspecified date: Unnamed boy (strangled with his own T-shirt and had his teeth removed post-mortem)
- 1991:
- Unspecified dates: Twelve unnamed boys (all raped and bludgeoned or strangled)
- June: Odair José Munis dos Santos, 11 (raped, manually strangled, and decapitated and dismembered post-mortem with a machete)
- December 16: Ivan and Altair Medeiros de Abreu
- Ivan Medeiros de Abreu, 7 (raped and strangled with his own T-shirt)
- Altair Medeiros de Abreu, 10 (attempted, but survived; was non-fatally bludgeoned with a rock and raped repeatedly)
On Criminal Minds
Andrade is partially similar to Season Five serial killer Gina King. Both were mentally-ill serial killers who killed their victims by strangulation and drank their blood. Also, both preserved their victims' blood by putting them in jars.
He is also similar to Season Seven serial killer Travis James. Both were mentally-ill serial killers who were sexually assaulted when they were minors, made money through prostitution before their killings, targeted young boys, killed their victims by bludgeoning them (though Marcelo also killed some victims by strangling them), and performed post-mortem rituals on their victims.
Sources
- Wikipedia's article about Andrade
- Murderpedia's article about Andrade
- Killer Instinct: The Vampire of Niterói (2010)