BASED ON A TRUE STORY - and on a extreme violent personal experience

A satanic cult and its leader, accused of killing two dozen children in rituals along the Transamazonian highway, wearing Ku Klux Klan robes and wielding golden weapons while awaiting rescue by extraterrestrials. This was the accusation hanging over VALENTINA DE ANDRADE MUÑOZ and the Argentinians from the Superior Universal Lineament in 2003. I personally attended the 12 days of the trial against the accused. There was a public outcry for justice—a kind of desperation mixed with the certainty that, for the first time, someone would pay for the string of macabre crimes.

Belém, one of the most religious cities in Brazil, hosted a decidedly unsecular trial, with the courtroom filled with crucifix images. The city boiled with hatred, and the popular verdict was already given: the witch was guilty. The press mercilessly reported Valentina as the mastermind behind the crimes. Yet nothing connected this woman to the events or to the other defendants. Hatred had blinded everyone.

Valentina’s defense lawyer, still very young at the time, skillfully exposed every flaw in the case. He was the only one trying to use logic, while the prosecution shouted dramatic phrases, telling her to go back to hell or calling upon Our Lady of Nazareth to protect everyone—further confirming the medieval atmosphere. No evidence was ever found. No witness, no proof. Still, the media kept pushing her guilt.

I looked at the wall of the courtroom and saw a huge image of a crucified Jesus. Were we about to convict a woman simply because her beliefs were different and strange? Were we condemning someone because she believed she could be saved by aliens?

I watched the mothers of the children come and go from the courtroom. Their pain was undeniable—the loss of their children, the destruction of their families. Someone had committed those crimes. The children were dead. For decades, the narrative had cultivated certainty that it was the work of a satanic cult. Were these mothers prepared to change their minds?

No. No one in that room cared about the botched police investigation or about logic. The conviction had become a necessity crafted by the media. Convicting someone was more important than doing justice or stopping the crimes—which, in fact, continued even during the trial. Valentina’s acquittal was followed by the discovery of bodies in the home of Francisco das Chagas, a man who would go on to confess to all the crimes and is now known as the most prolific serial killer in Brazilian history, with 42 confirmed murders.

Dalledone is the main character and narrative guide of this story that blends courtroom drama and crime thriller, based on real events.

Before Valentina’s trial, four men (doctors Césio and Anísio, Amailton Gomes, and military police officer Carlos Alberto) had already been convicted for the murders and emasculations. Chagas’s confession—and the fact that he unearthed, one by one, the remains of children who had never been found—confirmed his sole responsibility for the killings.

Nevertheless, due to the slowness and perversity of the Pará State Prosecutor’s Office, these men remain imprisoned to this day, despite civil and federal police investigations having concluded that Chagas was, in fact, the perpetrator. Their lives destroyed by the justice system, they are still waiting to be set free.