Elize Matsunaga Shot and Dismembered Her Husband in 2012. Here's Where She is Today.
The subject of Netflix's doc Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime remains in a São Paulo prison.SAVE ARTICLE
On May 19, 2012, Elize Matsunaga shot her millionaire husband Marcos Matsunaga in the head, chopped up his body, packed his dismembered body into garbage bags, placed those into suitcases, wheeled those suitcases into the elevator of their apartment building, and drove them to a wooded area outside of São Paulo to dispose of them. When his body was discovered a week later, the gruesome crime shocked Brazil and the world, making headlines for years as the case unfolded. In Netflix’s docuseries Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime, Elize Matsunaga tells her story in her own words.
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Marcos and Elize Matsunaga hunting together.
Netflix
Although she had initially reported him missing, Elize confessed to his murder a few weeks later, in early June. CCTV footage, as seen in the series, shows 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 returning later empty-handed.
Elize Matsunaga spent four years in prison before her extremely high-profile trial began in May 2016. At trial, her defense team argued that she killed Marcos in self-defense, 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 to purchase Marcos’ family’s food company Yoki—a deal that would greatly enrich the already ultra-wealthy businessman. Netflix’s documentary, which features interviews with close friends, family, lawyers, and medical examiners, scrutinizes the couple’s history and the details of the case.
Elize Matsunaga partook in Netflix’s documentary during a furlough from prison.
Netflix
On December 5, 2016, the jury found Elize Matsunaga guilty of acting in self-defense. She was sentenced to 19 years and 11 months in prison for the murder, destruction, and concealment of her husband’s corpse. The sentence was later recalculated to 18 years and nine months based on work Elize did while in prison. In 2019, it was reduced to 16 years and three months since she confessed to the crime.
Today, she remains in prison, allowed out for one week at a time periodically—during one of which she was interviewed for Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime. She is serving her sentence at the Tremembé Women's Penitentiary in São Paulo, and will be released in 2035.
Elize and Marcos’ daughter, who was only one year-old when her mother killed her father, remains in the care of Marcos’ parents, who have full custody of her. She will be about 24 years-old when Elize is released from prison.
