For several minutes, Vanda phoned Carlos incessantly: they had met in the hotel lobby and he still hadn't turned up. This was not like him. She waited a few more minutes, and then she saw Renato, her young lover, get out of the elevator and head for the exit. He was going very fast, so the woman immediately jumped him and asked about her friend. "He won't leave the room," he replied, very nervous.
That strange and evasive attitude made the woman suspicious who, after the model's hurried departure, decided to go up to the room and check what was happening. She pounded on the door and yelled Carlos's name, but she got no response. Vanda took her concern to the hotel staff and they opened it up. Upon entering, the spectacle was gruesome: Carlos had been brutally castrated and murdered.
Renato Seabra was born on October 9, 1989 in Cantanhede (Portugal) and his great dream was to become an international model, which is why he tried his luck on television. He appeared on the famous SIC reality show À Procura do Sonho (In Search of a Dream), where contestants had the opportunity to prove themselves in the field of fashion and rise as the 2010 Face Model of the Year. .
The format, inspired by the North American America's Netx Top Model, had 16 finalists, of which Renato was on the verge of victory with a third place. His image and his fame grew like foam and the mannequin began to rub shoulders with characters from the world of show business and journalism.
One of them was Carlos Castro, one of the most important public figures in the tabloids, a regular on gossip programs, famous for his sharp pen in interviews and reports, and a staunch defender of LGTBIQ rights. Carlos lived his homosexuality normally, he was out of the closet and, at his age, at that time he was 65 years old, he was an icon and an example to follow for many.
At the time Carlos and Renato met, the journalist was celebrating his 35-year professional career: it was one of the happiest moments of his life. In fact, he claimed to feel "fulfilled" both personally and professionally. And then, thanks to social networks, his path crossed paths with that of the young 21-year-old model.
"I think you're cute and you're very tall, we can talk if you want," Carlos wrote to Renato in a private message via Facebook. This initial rapprochement led to online chats, but also to intimate encounters to get to know each other better.
Renato saw in Carlos the person who would help him get contacts to achieve his dream, although apparently he also had a sentimental interest in him. “As I told you by message, I've been thinking about you a lot too… I thought about everything you said and I want to be with you!! A big kiss”, said the mannequin. It was October 16, 2010. But after two months of relationship, there was the fateful trip that changed everything.
Carlos proposed to Renato a romantic getaway: start the New Year in New York. The couple arrived on December 29 and settled near Park Avenue, in room 3416 of the Intercontinental Hotel. During those days, they walked around the Big Apple, toured all the most famous corners of the city, went to the theater and shopping, and even met one of the journalist's great friends, Vanda Pires.
However, on the morning of January 7, 2011, there was a heated argument between Renato and Carlos. Everything indicates that the journalist wanted to leave the relationship with the model and he did not accept it. The young man, completely enraged, reacted very violently, thus beginning the fierce attack.
Renato grabbed Carlos's neck from behind as he dragged him across the ground and pressed on his windpipe. He then plunged a corkscrew into her groin area, severing her testicles and scrotum, and slashed across her face. Finally, the model hit the journalist's head with a computer monitor and stepped on his face with his shoes on.
The brutal assault lasted at least an hour, after which Renato took off his clothes, took a shower, put on a suit and left the room, but not before taking $1,600 from the victim's wallet and hanging the sign. “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. Once in the elevator, the model smiled. Those images captured by the hotel's security cameras were used as evidence during the trial: had he just killed a man and did that make him smile?
He had a few steps left to leave the hotel when Vanda Pires stopped him: he had been calling Carlos for several minutes and could not find him, despite having been a while ago. Renato delayed him, assuring him that his friend would not leave the room, and he left quickly. For hours, the killer wandered aimlessly, until he took a cab to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital.
Meanwhile, Vanda, who had not liked the young man's altered and strange attitude at all, decided to go up to the room to check on Carlos. When he did not respond, she informed the hotel of the situation and they opened the door for her. Inside lay the journalist completely mutilated and bloody. Everything pointed to Renato having murdered him.
The alarm was quickly raised and several patrol cars arrived at the crime scene, while other units began the search protocol to capture the suspect. They located him at the hospital dealing with lacerations to his wrists. Apparently, he had attempted suicide.
During the interrogation, already at the police station, Renato confessed to the murder: "I castrated him to get rid of his homosexual demons." Later in court, the model recounted the reality of the discussion with Carlos. "Seabra allegedly confronted Castro, telling him that he was not gay and that she was only with him because of his money and influence," prosecutors said.
The case came to the forefront of the media, both Portuguese and North American, and was treated as a crime of passion, a fierce fight between two lovers. Now, the defendant's mother, Odilia Pereirinha, did not believe a word of what they said about her son: “I don't believe it, I don't believe it. He is a golden son, very good and incapable of doing something like that. My son is heterosexual, so he did not have an affair with Carlos Castro ”.
In December 2012, the State Supreme Court in Manhattan began the trial against Renato Seabra for the murder of Carlos Castro. During his turn to speak, the model, with a soft voice, without hesitation and in Portuguese, justified the crime by assuring that "that day, I don't know what came over me." Although he assumed the facts with a "I committed the crime."
The defendant's defense used the trump card of "mental alienation and psychosis" during the violent attack to exonerate him of all charges. According to the lawyer, Renato believed he had a divine mission to rid the devil of Carlos's homosexuality. However, a court-ordered psychiatric examination determined that the model was fit to stand trial.
For their part, the prosecutors argued that the perpetrator and victim were a couple and that Renato violently assaulted Carlos because he was "angry" since the journalist had decided to end the relationship. “The reason is as clear as if it were written in lights on a Times Square marquee. Renato Seabra intentionally murdered his victim, ”said assistant prosecutor Maxine Rosenthal, who described the defendant as“ deceitful, manipulative and dangerous ”.
He added: “The defendant did not kill Carlos Castro while reaping the benefits of the relationship in Portugal, while visiting modeling agents in London, or shopping in Madrid, or gambling in Atlantic City. The defendant killed Carlos Castro when Carlos told him that the relationship had ended.
At another point in the trial, the prosecutor read a signed statement from the journalist's sister and niece, who attended the trial daily:
“The other person could have stopped after the first insult, or before the first punch, or after Carlos Castro lost consciousness. He could have called for help and saved her life. But no, he was hit on the head with a computer, the beating continued and ended with a hideous mutilation that has rarely been seen, if ever."
Faced with the defense argument of "mental alienation and psychosis", the jury did not believe a word and declared Renato Seabra guilty of the murder of Carlos Castro. Even Judge Daniel P. Fitzgerald reflected on the murderer before sentencing: “Here, an argument turned from anger, to rage, to a truly chilling example of man's inhumanity to man. There was extreme brutality, sadism and dehumanizing acts."
Renato Seabra was sentenced to 25 years in prison to life in prison. He was 23 years old. And, despite the efforts of his defense to present appeals for his extradition to Portugal to serve his sentence, all have been rejected. It will be in September 2035 when the model can opt for a possible parole, to which his good behavior in prison will contribute.
Since the verdict, Renato has carried out two suicide attempts and several psychotic episodes in prison. “There are days when I feel so low that I don't feel like doing anything. At this age when people make plans for life, I can only pray and ask God to do a miracle and reduce my sentence. If God wants, he will do it, something good happens. You have to have faith, ”he told a journalist in a letter.
His mother, who travels to the United States every three months, visits him in prison in the hope that her son will soon be released and can return to Portugal. However, this "brutal and sadistic crime," as Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr called it, comes up against the suffering of another family, that of the victim, who saw how Carlos met "an end very painful and violent away from home.” A home, to which he will never return.
