Severed head of Brazilian footballer discovered in a bag on his front doorstep

Police in Brazil have launched a manhunt after the severed
head of a former professional footballer was left on the
doorstep of his home. The horrified wife of Joao Rodrigo
Silva Santos, 35, made the gruesome discovery as she left
the house in Rio de Janeiro for work early yesterday
morning.
The player's eyes and tongue had been cut out and his head
placed inside one of his own rucksacks, police said. Mr
Santos retired from football two years ago after a
successful career playing for several teams in Rio de
Janeiro, as well as for clubs in Sweden and Honduras.
He had recently set up his own business selling health foods
and dietary supplements. Continue...
Police said today that Mr Santos is believed to have been
snatched from outside the shop he had opened in the
Realengo district of Rio as he closed up at around 7.45pm
on Monday.
Witnesses said they saw several men bundling him into his
car, a Hyundai i30, and speeding off just before midnight,
a spokesman said. He was reported missing by his wife at
9pm on Monday.
Mr Santos' brother-in-law, who didn't want to be named,
told Brazil's Globo G1 website that the player's wife, Geisa
Silva, 31, stayed up all night after her husband failed to
arrive home.
He said: 'Every time a car passed by she would go to see.
'She was getting ready to go to work at around 5.30am
when she heard a noise, opened the front door and saw his
rucksack.
'When she opened it she discovered it contained his head.
'I did not want to look but the people who saw it said they
had gouged out his eyes and cut off his tongue,' said the
horrified relative.
Neighbours living close to the crime scene reported hearing
a woman screaming: 'My God, it's Joao! It's Joao's head.'
From what I know, he didn't have any enemies and neither
did his wife,' the relative added.In a statement Mr Santos'
widow said the couple had not been subjected to any
threats.
Lead murder investigator Rafael Rangel from the 14th
Military Police Battalion (BPM) in Rio, said witnesses saw
armed men kidnap the businessman. 'We believe that the
people who took him knew the family's routine,' said
Rangel.
Investigators are working on the hypothesis that Mr Santos
could have been murdered by a drugs gang because of Mrs
Silva's work at a military police base in a local slum.
The Police Pacification Unit in the Morro do Sao Carlos is
one of dozens set up in Rio's favelas to retake control of
the city's slums from violent drug traffickers.
However, according to police chief Rafael Rangel, Mrs
Silva worked as a social worker in the base and didn't
patrol the streets or make arrests like other police officers.
He told Brazil's O Dia newspaper the motives of the
murder are still unclear.
He said: 'Mrs Silva has no idea who would have done this.
Neither she, her husband or any other member of the
family have suffered any type of threat as far as she knows.
'There is nothing that would justify such a barbarous
crime.'
Santos did not have a police record.
Later today Brazilian police said body parts dumped beside
a city river were believed to be those of Mr Santos.
The player's brother-in-law told Brazil's Globo G1 website
that family members had positively identified a torso found
next to the Guandu river in Queimados, greater Rio de
Janeiro, by a birth mark on Mr Santos' stomach.
A police spokesman said other body parts had also been
found in the area and were being DNA tested.
He said the murder bears the hallmarks of an execution by
drug gangsters, but stressed that "every line of
investigation" is still open.
The couple had been together for 11 years and were
described as 'lovely' by neighbours.
'They were a happy, quiet couple,' said a neighbour, who
asked not to be identified. 'But you never know what may
have motivated a crime as stupid and as senseless as this.'
Mr Santos' played as a professional footballer between
1996 and 2005 - during which he scored 33 goals in 103
matches as a striker. Nicknamed Humble Hero, he was
signed to a number of second division teams. He also
played abroad for Swedish Club Oster Vaxjo and Olimpia
in Honduras.
A recent United Nations report into drug trafficking-related
crime in Brazil found that more than half of the homicides,
robberies and thefts have a direct or indirect link with this
criminal activity.
Culled from UK Daily Mail