Orphanage Exhumation

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31783, 13 September 1968, Page 15

Orphanage Exhumation

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) RIO DE JANIERO, Sept. 12. Police are seeking permission to exhume the body of a 13-year-old girl allegedlykicked to death by one of the owners of the “Abode of Light” orphanage. The exhumation decision was taken after a former employee of the orphanage, at Nova Iguacu, testified that

once she had seen Abel Barbosa Marques hit Eliete da Silva over the head with a stick, giving her a deep scalp wound that bled profusely. The child died last June 5, but, if her skull was fractured by the blow, it would show in an autopsy, the pollice notary, Mr Jorge Teieira, told reporters who attended a “reconstruction of the crime” at the orphanage, on the outskirts of Rio. Marques and his wife Edilsa, who owned and ran the orphanage—“dubbed the house of horrors” by neighbours—showed reporters and police how they punished the children under their care. Marques even reconstructed the scene of kicking Eliete, using 10-year-old Marli to demonstrate. Marli had previously testified to police that she witnessed the death of Eliete.

The former employee, Carminha Pereira da Silva, aged 39, told how Jose de Souza, aged 10, had died chained to a wooden bunk.

He apparently died of starvation, she said. The day he died, having been chained to the bunk all night, his body was so swollen the chains were invisible, she said. Carminha also told of Edilsa Margues suffocating a month-old baby by clapping her hand over the child’s mouth and nose to stop it from crying. When the baby lost consciousness, Carminha said, Edilsa Marques threw it against the wall and walked away.

Police say Abel and Edilsa Marques confessed that they were responsible for the deaths of 16 children during the 10 years they ran the “Abode of Light.”

Neighbours complained to police, who raided the orphanage a week ago last Friday. They found, among other things, one little boy lying bruised and chained on the floor of a tiny dark room.