On 19 May 2012, Elize Matsunaga shot her millionaire husband Marcos Matsunaga in the head, chopped up his body and then packed his dismembered body into bin bags. Said bags were then placed into suitcases, wheeled into the elevator of their apartment building, and driven to a wooded area outside of São Paulo to be disposed of. When Marcos' body was discovered a week later, the gruesome crime shocked Brazil and the world, making headlines for years as the case unfolded.
The case continues to capture global audiences: following Netflix’s 2021 docuseries Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime, the streaming platform has now expanded on the true-crime phenomenon with a drama adaptation of the case, Elize: Shadows of a Woman.
With renewed interest in the story, this is everything we know about the real Elize Matsunaga, her daughter, and where she is now after prison...
Why did Elize Matsunaga kill her husband, Marcos?
Elize Matsunaga, who was 38 at the time, returned home from a trip to visit her aunt on 19 May 2012. While she was away, she had hired a private investigator to follow her husband Marcos and collect evidence that he was cheating on her – as his infidelity had previously caused problems in their marriage.
Elize later confronted him about the affair, while they ate pizza that evening. The argument escalated, and according to Elize, he threatened to take their daughter, to place Elize in a psychiatric institution, and then slapped her before she went to retrieve one of the couple’s hunting guns.
Although she had initially reported him missing, Elize confessed to Marcos' murder a few weeks later, in early June.
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CCTV footage would go on to show Marcos entering the apartment with the pizza earlier that evening, but never leaving again. The cameras also captured Elize hauling multiple suitcases into the elevator and downstairs, but later returning empty-handed.
When was Elize Matsunaga convicted?
Elize Matsunaga spent four years in prison before her extremely high-profile trial began in May 2016. At trial, her legal team argued that she killed Marcos in self-defence, and that it was a crime of passion due to his infidelity.
The prosecution argued the killing was premeditated, as it occurred just days before General Mills was due to purchase Marcos’ family’s food company Yoki – a deal that would greatly enrich the already ultra-wealthy businessman.
On 5 December 2016, the jury found Elize Matsunaga guilty of manslaughter (initially classified in self-defence arguments), along with destruction and concealment of a corpse. She was originally sentenced to 19 years and 11 months in prison.
The sentence was later recalculated downward to 18 years and nine months based on work Elize did while in prison. In 2019, the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice further reduced her sentence to 16 years and three months due to her confession.
Where is Elize Matsunaga now?
After serving 10 years at the Tremembé Women's Penitentiary in São Paulo, on 30 May 2022, Elize Matsunaga was granted conditional release (liberdade condicional) by Brazilian courts.
Since then, she has reportedly relocated to the interior of São Paulo state, where she started working as a rideshare driver to earn a living.
What happened to Marcos and Elize Matsunaga's daughter?
Elize and Marcos’ daughter, Helena, who was only one year old when her mother killed her father, remains in the care of Marcos’ parents, Mitsuo and Misako, after the murder. She is now a teenager and continues to be raised away from the public eye.
Lauren Kranc is the Social Media Editor at Esquire, where she runs the brand's accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, and Threads, and contributes to the website whenever the opportunity to write about Timothée Chalamet arises. She appreciates when you leave nice comments.
