"I've doubted myself, I thought I'd be disgusted. But I was convinced of one thing. I'm really sick." The massacre of Pioz marked a before and after in the Spanish black chronicle; for its harshness, and for all the questions it left in the air. On August 17, 2016, Brazilian Patrick Nogueira, 19, murdered his uncle Marcos, his wife Janaina and their two children, David and Maria, aged one and four, dismembered them and put them in several garbage bags that he abandoned in the living room of his villa, in an urbanization of Guadalajara. The strong smell of the corpses provoked the call of the neighbors.
In a race against the clock and almost, almost against human logic, the police found the perpetrator, who is serving three sentences to permanent reviewable prison and another of 25 years in prison for murder with treachery. But there was more: the butcher was not alone in his deed. He was recounting and portraying the minute by minute of his night of fury with his best friend on WhatsApp.
"This crime has an important social dimension because of the dilemmas and debates it puts on the table," says producer Luz Aldama, who breaks down Nogueira's personality in Do not tell anyone, the investigative documentary series that premieres on Sunday Atresplayer Premium and that has immersed her for a year in the questions, many without response, which left the event in the environment of the young man in Brazil. The main one, of course, is whether that atrocity could have been prevented.
The crime of Pioz puts contains the keys to issues of our time
Luz Aldama, executive producer
"Why did that student from a wealthy family who wanted to be a footballer decide to kill? Why wasn't that enough, but had to share it in real time? Why didn't that other teenager watching everything in the distance do nothing? Why did the group of young people who had access to those messages remain silent, and only a 17-year-old girl dared to inform the police?", launches Aldama, "the story of Pioz puts contains the keys to issues of our time".
There is a chapter in Patrick Nogueira's biography that should have set off all the alarms... But he didn't. Three years before the Pioz massacre, he stabbed a teacher in the middle of class. Everything was recorded by security cameras and the video traveled the Brazilian geography from phone to phone. The violent explosion only required 45 days of community work and a psychological evaluation to which no one, except his parents, ever had access. Everyone knew there was a problem, everyone knew the true nature of the monster, everyone attended the birth of the psychopath. And everyone fell silent.
The scientific police inspects the scene of the crime of Pioz.PEPE ZAMORAEFE
"There is an essential difference between Brazilian and Spanish society in terms of the treatment that justice gives to people of one social class or another, and that marked the reaction of the family to such an atrocious fact: that was diluted, not only in their environment but in society and in the judicial system," explains Carlos Arroyo, director of the series. That psychological report could mark a different end for Pioz's family, and yet Patrick started from scratch in another city, settled with his sister. "It's funny how in that new environment he becomes a leader, even though everyone knew what he had done," continues the producer, who wonders how no one saw the signs; or if they simply did not want to see them: "This is how the psychopath was built."
There is an essential difference between Brazilian and Spanish society in terms of the treatment that justice gives to people of one social class or another.
Carlos Arroyo, director
The Atresmedia team travelled to Brazil for three weeks to visit Nogueira's life scenes and collect testimonies from his closest circle. The result is a parade of voices, some serene, others excited, but all with one trait in common: guilt. "Their lives have been somehow cut short by what happened, they blame themselves for not having done anything," says Aldama, "how would we have acted in the face of something like that?" For Arroyo, there may be a certain understanding towards the family, a father, a grandmother could never assume that his son is a potential murderer, but friends... "They trivialized it," he concludes.
Marvin Henriques, Patrick Nogueira's friend who followed Pioz's crimes live on WhatsApp.ATRESMEDIA
It is one of these friends who makes the difference in the story of Don't Tell Anyone. Marvin Henriques appears smiling before the cameras, a notebook in his hands. The day before accepting the interview, a judge has acquitted him of complicity in Pioz's crime. It was the first time that the guilt of a direct but remote witness, who not only received messages and photos, but also participated, was assessed: "It is said that one should not return to the scene of the crime. What could you have left there?" "It was very impressive to listen to Marvin," acknowledges the producer, "until he saw that there was a judicial decision in his favor he did not decide to speak."
When I received the first message I put it lol, but it was because of nervousness, to try to distance myself from that
Marvin Henriques, friend of Patrick Nogueira
"I thought those messages were deleted, I didn't even remember, I discovered that I kept them when Patrick told me they were going to call me to testify," says the young man, who remembers that day: "When I received the first message I put it hahaha, but it was because of nervousness, to try to distance myself from that." Marvin realized that what his friend was saying was no joke with the first image. Still, he remained online. Reading. Answering. Suggesting escape plans.
For Aldama, the case transcends the simple event: "It points to many of our controversies regarding how young people face their relationship with networks and how they affect their behavior." The macabre conversation fell into the hands of dozens of young people through a WhatsApp group. Only one girl, Jordana, dared to take the captures to the police.
- Crime of Pioz
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