The murders of 13 homosexual men in Parque dos Paturis in São Paulo, which occurred between February 2007 and August 2008, form a great mystery in the criminal history of Brazil, as the killer was never found. Beyond that, a sergeant from the country's police went to trial as the main suspect, but was later declared 'not guilty'.The crimes took place in that area of Carapicuíba, in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, and were perpetrated by someone nicknamed 'the Rainbow Maniac', in reference to the gay flag.Sandra Pettovello's unexpected measure excites retireesThe murders occurred between February 2007 and August 2008 in the park, and in all cases, the victims were homosexual men between 20 and 40 years old.In this sense, eleven of the victims were shot in the head with a .38 caliber weapon, another suffered twelve gunshot wounds, and the remaining one died after receiving several kicks to the head.That park functioned as a kind of 'Red Light Zone', where prostitution was practiced and many people went to have sex, so they believe that the murderer could have been a potential client or someone pretending to be one of them, with the objective of killing them.Agents from the São Paulo State Security Department stated that the killer could be a police officer from the same São Paulo state, so in 2008, tests were carried out to determine if the crimes were committed with the same weapon.On December 10, 2008, the police arrested and placed a sergeant of the force, named Jairo Francisco Franco, at disposal, as a witness implicated him in the murder of one of those men, which occurred on August 19 of that year.The person who testified before the Justice system claimed to have seen that day Franco shoot a homosexual man 12 times, while another witness said that the arrested sergeant used to frequent the park looking among homosexuals who were prostituting themselves in the area.When it was believed that this sergeant could be 'the Rainbow Maniac' and investigators thought the murders were solved with the detention of this officer, everything went back to square one.On August 23, 2011, Franco was released after the trial, in which he was declared 'not guilty' by 4 votes to 2.In this way, 18 years after the first of these murders, the mystery remains unsolved, and there are 13 families that continue to demand justice.
