Brazilian Woman Wheels Uncle's Corpse To Bank To Sign £2,650 Loan; Check What Happened Next

A woman from Rio de Janeiro went viral last month when a video of her bringing her deceased uncle to a bank to have him sign loan documents surfaced online. Following the incident, Erika de Souza was arrested by the Brazilian police on charges of disrespecting a corpse and trying to commit fraud. After spending 16 days on remand in prison, she recently spoke out for the first time about the accusations.  

"The days away from my family have been horrible, very difficult. I didn’t realise my uncle was dead. It’s absurd what people are saying. I’m not that person people are talking about; I’m not that monster," Metro quoted De Souza, citing a Brazilian TV programme called Fantastico.  

As per the report, she confessed that she only realised that her uncle Paulo Braga had passed away when an ambulance worker confirmed his demise. De Souza claims that her memory of the afternoon on April 16 when she took Braga to sign off on the £2,650 loan is very blurry as she was on a pill.  

De Souza was taking a sleeping pill called Zolpidem as she was undergoing medical treatment. She told Metro, "I don’t know if it was the effect of the pills I had taken that day and I took from time to time.”  

She stated that her uncle had told her that he would feel better if she held his head up before they entered the bank together, and that even though he had recently been discharged from the hospital after contracting pneumonia, it was his idea to go to the bank.  

De Souza said, "He was independent; he walked; he did what he wanted; and he had a good mind," reported Metro. She added that Braga was not a daily wheelchair user, and she was never her carer.  

A judge granted Erika bail, stating that her release wouldn't endanger public order. They also said that De Souza has a ‘weakened’ state of mental health and the responsibility of caring for her daughter with special needs.