Where is Elize Matsunaga now? Convicted murderer is focus of Netflix's Once Upon a Crime
Elize Matsunaga killed and dismembered her husband Marcos Matsunaga in 2012.
Netflix’s four-part true crime series Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime focuses on one of the most notorious murders in Brazil’s recent history.
In May 2012, 38-year-old Elize Matsunaga shot her husband, Marcos Matsunaga in the head at close range in their apartment in São Paulo. She cut his body into pieces, wrapped the parts in plastic bags and put them inside suitcases. Those suitcases were discovered days later scattered by the side of a road more than 20 miles away. However, some of Marcos’ body parts were never recovered.
Many Brazilians have debated the crime since Elize was arrested. She had come from a poor family in the southern state of Paraná and was working as an escort when she met Marcos, so many of his friends are said to have regarded her as a Cinderella who had become a princess when she married him.
However, Elize’s defence attorney claimed in the trial that she was desperate and killed Marcos because he threatened to petition for custody of their baby daughter if they separated following her discovery of his affairs.
Elize speaks for the first time since her trial in the documentary – the footage of her in the series was filmed when she was on furlough from prison in 2019. “I still don’t know how to explain what kind of emotion made me pull that trigger,” she says.
She also claims her crime became notorious 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 says. “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? Would there be spotlights on him and people eager to know, ‘What about the victim, Elize?’”
Where is Elize Matsunaga now?
Now 47 years old, Elize is currently serving a life sentence for her husband’s murder.
She initially denied any involvement but, in 2016, she confessed to killing him. Elize claimed it was a crime of passion, following arguments over Marcos’ affairs. She was sentenced to 18 years and six months in prison for his murder and also the concealment of his corpse.
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She is currently held at a prison in Tremembe in the state of Sâo Paulo and is due for release in 2035, following a reduction to her sentence after her confession.
Her daughter Helena is in the care of her grandparents.
Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime is available to stream on Netflix. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Documentaries hub.
