A woman has been jailed after she lured a pregnant woman to a fake baby shower before killing and stealing her baby. 

Rozalba Maria Grime, 27, from the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, lured Flavia Godinho Mafra, 24, to a fake baby shower before beating her to death with a brick. At a trial that lasted just 15 hours, Grime was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted murder of a baby, concealment of a corpse, obstruction of justice, abduction of a minor and denying the rights of a newborn. 

The crime took place in the town of Canelinha on August 27 last year and Grime has been in custody since then. During the trial by jury, she told the court how she had planned the crime and had studied how to remove the unborn child from the mother’s womb. She also told how she had researched how to simulate the symptoms of pregnancy and childbirth. According to the defendant herself, she lured the victim to an abandoned pottery, where there were bricks to strike her on the head with.

Investigators said Mafra, who was 36-weeks-pregnant, died after being struck several times on the head with a brick.

Her belly was cut with a utility knife and her unborn baby was removed from her womb before her body was hidden in a kiln. 

Flavia A post-mortem found she died of a haemorrhage. After the killing, Grime went with her partner who believed at the time she had been pregnant and had just given birth, to a hospital in Canelinha. 

There, she told staff she had just given birth on a thoroughfare. But the hospital staff were suspicious of the woman’s account and called the police. Her partner was initially suspected of involvement in the crime. Yet he was released from custody on October 7 last year and acquitted on July 27this year. 

The prosecutor at the time concluded that he genuinely thought his partner had been pregnant. The woman’s defence may appeal the sentence.

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