In the early hours of March 11th, 2025, residents in a neighbourhood on the eastern edge of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, called the police after witnessing a woman and a young man, dragging what appeared to be a body into a nearby wooded area.

When officers arrived, they found the remains of a man in a clearing. Partially burned. Mutilated. And with a trail of blood that led them away from the trees, back along the street, and straight to the front door of a house nearby. They knocked.

At the door stood forty-two-year-old Erica Pereira da Silveira Vicente. She did not run. She did not deny what had happened. Instead, she handed police the knife and told them exactly what she had done. But then she told them why.

And one year later, in a courtroom, seven jurors listened to the full story. They heard the evidence, heard Erica's confession, and heard what she said had happened before the killing. Then, they found her not guilty, and the next day she walked out of prison a free woman.

This is the case of Erica Pereira da Silveira Vicente… and the question of how far a mother will go to protect her child.

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📚 Sources for this episode: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yghACV7nKx6v1BiDrFiLVlg3Hi-zg8Ge/view?usp=share_link