A Brazilian man has been arrested after a horror “Valentine” that contained an incendiary bomb was sent to his ex-girlfriend.
Edileuza Ramalho was in the Santa Casa de Misericórdia hospital for 10 days after the gift-wrapped bomb detonated at her home on January 2. The device also caused substantial damage to her house in the neighbourhood of Jardim Virginia in the city of Francisco Morato.
Prime suspect Eduardo Lazarim was arrested by police on February 2 in the same São Paulo suburb where the explosion occurred, and has been charged with attempted murder.
He is accused of sending a bouquet of red roses, along with a gift-wrapped bomb, to telemarketer Edileuza Ramalho, 49.
Edileuza wasn’t home when the deadly present arrived, and it wasn’t until three days later that she opened the parcel.
Shrapnel from the explosive device hit the 49-year-old, resulting in her hospitalisation for 10 days, as well as destroying the roof of her property and her bathroom door, according to local media.
Edileuza’s son, electrician Jonathan Cardoso dos Santos, was at home at the time and said he was thrown into the air by the force of the blast.
He told local media: “When she opened the box, smoke started to come out, it caught fire, it exploded, but it exploded in a way that you couldn’t see anything else. I was thrown a metre and a half (around 5 ft) from the door.”
Edileuza’s family told local media that the she suspected at the time that the package had been sent by Lazarim. She had ended her relationship with him in December after discovering that he was already married.
But, according to Edileuza’s relatives, Eduardo did not accept the breakup.
Her sister-in-law Kelly Oliveira told reporters: “She’d say ‘don’t leave me alone, he’ll come here, he’ll want to kill me’ and she’d keep on saying this all the time.”
The investigation is continuing.