The body of a Brazilian soap opera actor who went missing in January has been discovered in a trunk in Rio de Janeiro.
Jefferson Machado’s remains were found tied up and concealed inside a wooden trunk that was buried six feet beneath the concrete floor of an outhouse in the western Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Campo Grande on Monday, as reported by the police.
Authorities confirmed the identity of the 44-year-old through fingerprints on Wednesday.
The property, where his body was discovered, was rented out to a man who is a suspect in the case but remains unnamed, according to Brazilian news outlet G1.
Machado, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, is believed to have known the person who rented the property where his body was found and was last seen entering it a month ago, as reported by R7 news.
It took a team of nine individuals, including seven Civil Police agents, to extract the trunk from the hole.
A family lawyer stated in local news outlets that the trunk belonged to Machado and had been previously removed from his home.
‘Jefferson was coldly and brutally murdered by envious, evil and, of course, unscrupulous people,’ wrote Cintia Hilsendeger, a friend of the family, on the actor’s Instagram account.
Machado’s last role was in the Record TV soap opera ‘Reis’ in 2022. He was last seen on January 27 and officially declared missing on February 9.
Machado’s family became aware of his disappearance after a non-governmental agency informed them that his eight dogs had been abandoned at his home in Rio de Janeiro.
Each of the dogs had their own tracking device – two of them died and six are being treated at a veterinary center.
His 73-year-old mother, Maria das Dores, mentioned to Brazilian outlet Notícias do Dia that she last spoke to Machado on January 29 and he had traveled to São Paulo for a job interview, staying at a friend’s home.
She grew concerned when she stopped receiving calls from him and only received misspelled text messages.
‘He also said that he dropped his cellphone in the toilet, therefore, he was unable to make a video call,’ das Dores said.
The family became increasingly worried when his cloud’s password was changed, and his location was deactivated in February.
As recently as last week, das Dores was still holding onto hope that Machado was alive and expressed how his disappearance had impacted the family, including another son and a grandson.
