Tender Hearted Brazilian Hitman Fakes Photo of Victim's Death

Sept. 23, 2011 — -- A tender hearted hitman used lots of ketchup to fake a photo of his target's death in order to collect the kill money without any bloodshed, according to police.

In a real-life Brazilian soap opera, Maria Nilza Simoes, a jealous woman in her 50's, allegedly hired Carlos Roberto Jesus to kill ranildes Aguiar Araujo, a woman she believed was having an affair with her boyfriend.

When Simoes received a gruesome-looking photo of her victim apparently covered with blood and a knife stuck in her torso, she believed the job had been done.

"[Simoes] asked the wrong person to kill [Araujo]. He's someone that wouldn't even kill a chicken," Pidonbacu Police Chief Marconi Almino de Lima told ABCNews.com. "Now, Araujo is known around here as the 'ketchup woman.'"

Strapped for money, Jesus accepted the job for the equivalent of about $530, but police say he had no intention of ever killing Araujo, the police chief said.

"He didn't kill her because he had known her since childhood and would never kill her," Lima said.

Jesus tracked down his target and filled her in on the situation. He went to a grocery store and bought a few bottles of ketchup and a knife, Lima said. Together, they went to the outskirts of town where she lay on the ground as he poured ketchup all over her.

They stuck the knife in her armpit and snapped a cell phone picture to send to Simoes. After Simoes was satisfied that the job had been done, she gave Jesus his money, which he shared with his fake victim.

But the scheme was discovered when Simoes ran into the supposedly dead Araujo at a party, Lima said.

"Two days later, the Simoes saw Araujo at a party here in the city and she said she got scared. She said she was thinking, 'How could it be that I had her killed and I see her here?'" Lima said. "She was indignant and came to the police department on Monday saying Roberto had assaulted her with a gun."

Jesus was brought into the station for interrogation and told police that, in reality, Simoes had hired him to kill the woman. Simoes then confessed to police that a transaction had indeed occurred between the two.

All three were brought into the station for questioning but were released. Jesus is not accused of attempted murder because he never actually tried to hurt Araujo. It is unclear what charges against him will be, but Simoes is charged with two minor citations for false communications of crime and for threatening.

They are all expected to appear in front of a judge in October, according to Lima. The soap opera scenario took place in a small town in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil.

"I've been a policeman for a long time, but this is the first time I've seen anything like this. It's unbelievable," Lima laughed. "This melodrama, this is the stuff of soap operas or movies. Only in Bahia."