Episode 175: Suzane Von Richthofen

 In this episode Janus and Joyous go back to Brazil to take a look at the murders of Manfred and Marisia Von Richthofen at the hands of their own daughter and her boyfriend.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Unsung Murder Ballads is a true crime podcast, and as such, we will be discussing topics that are disturbing, graphic, and often violent in nature. So this is not for children under the age of 13.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

But you know this because you did start playing this episode. So here are some things you might not know about us.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

We are going to be critical of mistakes made by both criminals and law enforcement.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

We're going to express our views on things that you might not always agree with.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

We will occasionally go on an off-topic tangent.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

And we're going to use dark humor to express ourselves now and then.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

So if you're easily triggered, this might not be the podcast for you.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

However, if this is your cup of tea, then raise your pinky finger while you sip and join us for this week's horrific case, you sick bastards.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I am Janice Dead.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

And I'm Joyce Dead.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I think this is 175.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

I'm pretty sure last week was 174, so I think we're on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, I I think so too. And in fact, it is in the title of my spreadsheet here. 175.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

We can count.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Rock on. So yeah, this is this is gonna be an interesting one. It's bringing us back down to Brazil. So that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

And uh without a teaser, I'm gonna open this with a question that I I think will actually act as a better teaser.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

If you could update the list of the seven deadly sins so that it applied to today's world more effectively, what would you add?

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Oh creating AI slop. Deadly sin number one.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

But what would what would you call that?

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Slopification.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Sin cardal sin number one. Alright. Let me see. There's I it's hard to think what I would add, but there's ones I would remove. Which would you remove?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You would take lust off of there.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Yeah, let bitches fuck.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

It's see for me, lust isn't just about desire. Lust is like it's almost like the gluttony of lust, of sex.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

I was about to say I would also take gluttony off.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

But I see, I I see why they were put in there though, by overdoing things. It's not healthy for you.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

So I I would This is true, but I I guess it depends on how you how we define sin.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

True. So don't get me wrong, I think desire is a good thing, but I do think lust, which is basically like sex addiction, I think is a bad thing. So I would actually keep lust on there, but I would maybe refine the definition.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Okay, fair. Fair, fair, fair. As I would with glut. For me, like I would only call something a sin as it if it hurts somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Okay, but this so I think these were I think all of these are meant to be about yourself, though, aren't they? Envy.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah. I think these are things that it was a list of seven things that you should avoid to be a better person, is what I think these were originally designed for. So like gluttony, I would say is a big problem in the United States in particular, since we have so many obese individuals.

unknown 3:19

True.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

I mean, we're and it's not even the US isn't even the worst place.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Agreed, but it's it's a problem here.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

It's certainly a problem here. Making AI slop, that's a problem for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

See, I was thinking I would remove sloth until I realized that laziness is also a big problem.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Yeah, I would maybe be also because like moving your body for those who are physically able to is like the one of the most studied ways to be happier.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Um but no one is made happy when you use AI to make garbage. And so that's I think that's my you're definitely stuck in the awesome.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

I'll give you that. That's a good one. I think AI is definitely going to be a problem for us in the future. Hopefully, not Terminator movie level problems, but um who knows?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

So well, my problem with it is sure, all of that the bigger, deeper, whatever, black mirror stuff, but also just that I'm so tired of everything I read being so obviously made by a robot and having no substance.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Agreed. And I'm tired of how good it looks to the point where I have to research every single thing I see just to make sure it's legit. I hate that.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Exactly. So I will give you And I'm tired of seeing junk AI art that all looks like ass.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Yes. Uh so here's the funny thing. So the thing I would add, I've been saving, I have not to talk to because it's gonna lead into this case.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Okay. So I would probably much better than what I'm saying. I'm just saying pet peeves.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

No, but that one I give it to you. I give it to you. I think people need to stop, and they need to stop now.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

But that I agree. I would dear listener, please.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, if you're one of those people, please stop for joyous's sake.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Please, I'll love you forever if you stop.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

The thing I would add is entitlement. Oh yeah, that one is a big one for me. I think it's far too prevalent everywhere, at least in the US. People here.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah, I feel like it fits into pride as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

But it's not it's like a it's like a merger of pride and greed, I think. Yes, and it is it develops this personality type that I just can't stand.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

You know, I think the archetype.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yes, I can't do it anymore, and that's yeah, especially since you work in the service industry. Exactly. Yep, yeah, it's it's brutal, and uh, so that's what this case is about today. Because the woman, a woman by the name of Suzanne von Rifstoffen, uh, she takes the cake in entitlement.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Well, all right, she really does.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

This is fucking awful, so buckle up. It's not that awful, it's not again, it's not brutality, but her level of like I deserve it all, oh my fucking god.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yes. And another more thing about it, entitlement, yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Also, yes, yeah, it definitely does uh belongs on a list of things that people need to stop doing.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah, yes, people think they're entitled to things from people they date or from the opposite sex or from you know, whatever, and it's like you better fucking stop.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Absolutely, 100% agree with you. So, as I said, this takes place in Brazil, and Brazil has roughly over 200 million residents spread out over three million square miles. And this is like an old country. Anyone who's seen a map knows this country is fucking huge. The Amazon rainforest covers about 60% of the country and is often referred to as the lungs of the world. So we're focusing in on the city of uh uh the yeah, the city of Sao Paulo.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

I've heard it's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

I've never seen it, but it's definitely on my list. So but it serves as the country's economic heart. More than 200 billion dollars flows through that city every year. And maybe that's not a big deal to cities here in the US, but in Brazil, that's a busy city.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

You know, I have no point frame of reference for economic numbers, but it sure sounds like a shitload of money to me.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

It's a lot of money, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Now, about four and a half thousand families in Sao Paulo are actually classified as millionaires. So it's kind of like they're Los Angeles. Sure. I mean, I don't know. I don't know where I mean that's where I assume our biggest concentration of millionaires are because all our celebrities are there, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

I'd say probably Silicon Valley, actually.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah, that's true. We're we're shifting to billionaires in this country, aren't we?

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Yes, yes. And it's a lot easier to be a millionaire tech money than off making a movie, probably.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

That's very true. Well, that financial figure, that kind of income, is what brings us to the Von Richtaffen family. And I may be pronouncing that wrong, and I may pronounce it differently as I go. I'm doing the best I can. It's Richtofen, and it's hard to say.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

So doesn't sound very Brazilian, does it?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

It's not, and it has its roots, but we'll get into where that comes from in a bit. Well, alrighty. So this family was an affluent family living in the suburbs of Sao Paulo, and they had a small mansion found south of the city in a suburb called Brooklyn, of all things, and it was and the house itself was valued at three million Brazilian real, which is the equivalent of six hundred thousand dollars. So here it's a decent house. Maybe not here in Massachusetts, but here in the U.S. it's still a decent house. There, that's extravagant.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Right, and I'm sure it's huge. Like a I'm sure there's a pool, a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

You yeah, you can buy a lot more there.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

So the family consisted of the father, Manfred, who he himself was a talented German engineer and the director of Dursa, which was a state-owned company which managed the highways and the roads leading in and out of Sao Paulo. Gotcha. Now his wife, Mauricia, was a she was a psychiatrist in for the local area, and the two met while Manfred was studying civil engineering at the University of Sao Paulo, and it's reported that their thing was love at first sight. Her outgoing and friendly demeanor complimented his quiet and gentle nature, and the two married in the 70s and shortly after they started having children. Suzanne was born on november third, nineteen eighty three, and four years later her younger brother Andreas would follow. The two children grew up in a privileged household and were educated in the city's most elite private schools. As a result, they were considered academically gifted. Suzanne was described as a quiet young girl who was often shy. She wasn't the most popular, but she always had several friends and maintained a good relationship with her parents and her brother. Growing up, she learned to speak three languages, and after graduating from a German high school, she moved on to study law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo. I didn't realize you could go to a German high school in Brazil. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

They kind of have like them everywhere, like a foreign language immersion high school. Do we have those here? Dutch one in Boston or something.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Is there? I've never heard of that before. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

I guess I don't really know anyone who's been to one. Right, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, there's definitely one in the Boston area.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yeah, I didn't realize you could the full immersion blows my mind. That's okay, sure. I thought maybe if like you were in. See, I can understand, yeah, like if you're deep in like like little Italy or something in New York, like there's probably some that speak or maybe in years past spoke only Italian. So I can sort of see it. Yeah. It's just I just never really thought about it.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yeah, because like when does that come up? Who's going to those schools? Like almost no one.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

No one that we know.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

So despite striving for a successful and professional future, Suzanne didn't have to worry about money. And therefore, she wasn't really that motivated.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Fair. I was certainly motivated by the fact that I would have student student loans and I better get my frickin' money's worth.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Exactly. That's how most people should be. So it's estimated that the Von Ristteffen family's wealth sat around the 17 million dollar mark. So she definitely didn't have much to worry about.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

No.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Now added to this was the rumor that Suzanne's father had put another 10 million euros in a Swiss bank account for Suzanne. Money that she would receive when she finished her studies because the Swiss bank account was apparently in her name.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Okay.

unknown 12:31

For her.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

It's funny how in my research I found nothing about a bank account like that for the brother. But who knows? So we're gonna jump forward to 1999 in August of 1999 to be exact. The Von Richstefen family had attended a model aircraft fair, which again blows my mind. That's a thing. But I shouldn't be surprised because I used to go to Comic-Cons.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Right, there's a there's something for every hobby.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Exactly. I I I said that and then regretted saying it.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Yeah. You you wouldn't believe the number of yarn fares there are.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

I definitely would not believe the number of yarn fares, but somehow, now that you've said it, I'm like, oh yeah, I can see it now.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Probably mostly full of old ladies, but I'm judging.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Half and half. The craft is alive.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Okay, fair. I'm not, you know me, and my crafts, my hobbies are definitely not uh doesn't have anything to do with yarn yet.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

No.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Not yet, but we'll see how it goes. So her brother Andreas had developed an interest in model airplanes, and while he was there, he started talking to an older boy named Danielle Cravanos. Now I am saying Danielle, but it's Daniel in English, but they pronounce it Danielle in Portuguese. Now Danielle was 19 years old at the time and had a knack for building model airplanes. And with Andreas' growing passion, he asked his parents if he could pay Danielle to teach him how to build planes as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Seems reasonable.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, so they agreed. And now we fast forward a few weeks, and while teaching Andreas, Danielle unexpectedly caught the attention of Suzanne.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

This is sounding like the plot of um how many movies.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I've never seen Parasite. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

You haven't seen Parasite?

SPEAKER_00 14:25

I have not. No, I everyone yells at me when I say that.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah, that's why my tone of voice is what it is. It is one of the most masterfully executed thrillers that I have seen. Probably possibly ever.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Okay. I'll definitely it's on my list.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Oh, put it at the top of your list, man. It is just oh.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Alright, I will get to it if I don't. I'll try to watch it tonight after we're done recording. I have nothing to do, actually.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Hell yeah. So good.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

So, side note, many non-Brazilian articles inaccurately claim that Danielle and Suzanne met at a kickboxing class, but all the local sources can contradict that. By the time they took those classes.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Like where are they getting that from?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Well, by the time they took those classes, they had already known each other a couple months. So but that's a lot of them report that that's where they met, and that's not true. At least according to local sources, which I trust more. Yeah. So Danielle and Suzanne immediately hit it off. Where Suzanne was privileged and well educated, Danielle had a very different upbringing. He came from a low income family and background. Both Danielle and his older brother, Christian, were mechanics at a local garage. They had both dropped out of school at a relatively young age and had failed to finish any of their education. Now, for a well-kept, shy young woman, Danielle's boisterous and rebellious attitude intrigued Suzanne. As it often does with young girls, let's be honest. Unsure of how her parents would take the relationship if they found out about it, she decided to keep it a secret as long as she could.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah, they would probably wouldn't tolerate her dating someone who was poor.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Right. More than anything else, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

As the months went by, Suzanne's relationship with Danielle eventually ended up being revealed to her parents. And although they were initially not particularly concerned, because they they let them date, but they would change their mind as they learned more and more about Danielle. Because when they met him, he claimed, this is when they hired him to teach their son how to build models, he had claimed he was a law student and was building model airplanes as a hobby. But the truth was he wasn't doing much of anything.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

He often just spent his days smoking weed literally to the level of dependency, which made him lazy and paranoid. Now I know a lot of time. I know a lot of people who smoke a lot of weed, and some of them become more focused when they smoke. This guy was the opposite of that.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Yeah, that's that's the more common response.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

He basically had no intention of returning to his education or even finding a real job for that matter. He was content getting high and spending all his time with Suzanne, you know, his young sugar mama.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Yep. I mean, who wouldn't who wouldn't love that arrangement?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Right. I I mean I don't think I could do it, but I'm a proud individual in terms of like I don't want someone else to pay for me all the time.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Right, me too, but I think there is lots of people who would love that.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Oh, I have no doubt, especially in today's entitled world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Now, at this point, her parents could no longer handle their daughter dating him. But surprisingly, it's Andreas who stood up for them. He would cover for them. He adored his sister so much and he saw Danielle as a good friend that he literally ran interference for them. Wow. So while the two of them are going out to motels and spending time at Danielle's, Andreas made up elaborate lies to cover for her with his parents. And then their parents decided to take a trip to Europe for an entire month, leaving Suzanne and Andreas behind with free reign of the house.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

That's an interesting parenting choice.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

I don't get that at all. I understand that she's a she's I think she's 18 at this point, but you know she's got this bad influence boyfriend.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

And how old is this little brother?

SPEAKER_00 19:00

I think he's about 14 at this point.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, I'd be more worried about him.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Right. But she's For a whole month. Again, I'm not a parent, I can't speak to it.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Yeah, I guess me neither, but I can still judge.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

So they felt that with Suzanne being 18, being an adult, this was a great opportunity for her to prove her maturity to them. But of course, instead, she allowed Danielle to essentially move into the house with her.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Naturally.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

And they spent that entire month by the pool drinking and getting high on various drugs. When her parents returned-predictable. Yeah, 100% predictable. I can't believe her parents didn't see that coming.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah, they're kind of dumb for that.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

After returning home and finding out what their daughter had actually been doing, arguments began. Over the following week, Suzanne was getting more and more desperate. And she went as far as to ask her father if he would buy, according to every resource, says buy her an apartment. I don't know if that was a thing or just pay for her rent. But either way, she was asking him to get her an apartment so her and Danielle could live together there.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

The balls. Just saying.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

The balls, but I mean these rich kids, they often just get whatever the fuck they want.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

And you're not wrong. Again, entitlement.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Mm-hmm. And entitlement because they were taught to be entitled, also.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

100%, yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Low-key, they kind of are entitled to that because they were, you know, the parents are just gonna give it to them. Well maybe not in this case.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I was gonna say, not this time. Her father told her she could do whatever she liked as long as she did it with her own money. And he went further and threatened to cut her off from her allowances. Now, Suzanne's pissed.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

And yeah, of course she is.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

And again, this goes on for a little bit, but she eventually accepts defeat. At least that's how things appeared.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Now jumping forward to October 31st, 2002, both Suzanne and her brother Andreas had snuck out of the house to go to a party. Shortly after 4 a.m. November 1st, they were sneaking back into the house, and they found a gruesome scene. Their mother and father were dead, had been horribly murdered. They called the police, and responding officers found both bodies in the main bedroom. They had been savagely attacked while they were sleeping, having been beaten almost beyond recognition.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Oh, that's so awful for those poor kids to have found that.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yes. There were also strangulation marks around their neck. The mother Mauricia had a garbage bag around her head.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Now, evidence around the house gave the appearance that the family had been robbed. Money had been forcefully extracted from a suitcase, and other areas which contained cash were now empty. However, as investigators continued to look around the property, things weren't adding up for them. For example, the alarm system failed to notify the security guards that were stationed across the street from the home at the times of the murders. They didn't even the alarm never went off. In fact, as they dug deeper into that, the alarm system had actually been deactivated, meaning that the killer or killers knew the alarm code. Additionally, the ransacking of the house seemed way too neat for police's likings of a creno in terms of a crime scene. Yeah, they basically instead of things being thrown around at random, they were almost uniformly tossed about. There were also no signs of a forced entry. None of their electronic devices had been stolen. Some rooms were completely untouched. So of course the question became what happened to the von Richdoms Richtefsons? I can't get that right. At first nobody knew. And the media focused on Andreas and Suzanne, obviously. Now Andreas was so upset that he reportedly struggled to breathe at times. Oh and Suzanne appeared to the outside looking in way too calm for a girl who had just lost her parents.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Police soon learned that the night of the murders, Suzanne had snuck her brother out of the house to attend a party. They thought their parents were asleep. She dropped her brother off at a party, this is what the police are learning, and Suzanne and they learned that Suzanne had gone to a motel with Danielle so the two could smoke and, you know, have some fun. And that when they returned at 4 a.m., Suzanne and Andreas found their parents murdered. The problem was that Suzanne's statements to police contradicted her brother's statements.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Oh, yep. Well, that's how they getcha.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

She had told police that her parents supported her relationship with Danielle. That's a big one.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

That's a big lie. That's a big lie to tell, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Now, when the funeral for Manfred and Mauricia were came up, they were finally laid to rest, everyone noticed that Suzanne seemed to cry a lot less than her brother did. She seemed rather emotionless. And that stirred opinions of everyone around her. And rumors were flying around that she had actually hosted a pool party at their home only three days after her parents died.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Bro, it's still a crime scene.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

It's Brazil, so I don't know if that with if that mattered, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Well, I mean, like just spiritually, it's a crime scene.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, I wouldn't go to that. Well, I would go to that party, but I can see where a lot of people wouldn't go to that party.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

You know, as much as I want to say I because of what we do, I would go.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Right, right, right. But like a normal fucking person wouldn't go to a party like that.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Correct. Now, others also noted that Suzanne's emotion would shift quickly when she knew cameras were present.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

That seems like normal. Well, but under the circumstances, I think we know what's going on here.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

No, but I mean like she's having a good time, all smiles and parties, and then she realizes a camera's there and she suddenly acts really sad. That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Yeah, it doesn't look good.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Yeah, and that made everyone suspicious. And then came an anonymous tip. Someone came forward to report a suspicious purchase that had been made just days after the murders. A man had walked into a local motorbike shop to purchase a Suzuki GSX bike. Now the cost of this bike in 2002 would have been between $8,600 and $10,000. So a lot of money in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, that's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

The purchase itself wasn't the suspicious part. It was the fact that the person paid for the entire thing up front using only 100 denomination bills.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Yeah, that is sus.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

And the person that bought this bike was Danielle's brother. Christian Kravanos.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

His brother. Oh. Yeah. Those who knew of Danielle and Christian were rather skeptical of this bike purchase, as everyone knew the two of them were broke and drug addicts.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

So officers brought Christian in and began to press him about the bike and where he got the money, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

So despite initially trying to put on a tough guy act for police, he proved pretty easy to break. Which is hilarious. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Yeah, that is very funny.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

He basically, to everyone's surprise, admitted to murdering Manfred and Mauricia.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Oh, well, that was a little easy, but maybe he didn't do it. Maybe Danielle did.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Well, he revealed that Danielle and Suzanne had helped him. So according, according to Christian, both according to Christian, both Suzanne and Danielle had come up with a plan to kill her parents so that the two of them could finally be together and live off the $17 million inheritance.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Does this guy know you're not supposed to just like confess to your crimes?

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Apparently not.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

I don't know what to do with someone who I mean, a good case closed.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Almost. We got a bit more to go here. So basically, Suzanne and Danielle were then arrested, and realizing that the evidence was surely going to convict them, Suzanne quickly confessed as well. But as usual, her statements didn't line up with Danielle's.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Fucking idiots. You think you'd come up with a plan before.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Before you just go ahead and confess? Yeah, you would think, but children doing crimes, not exactly professionals.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

That's true. But I mean, I don't know. If you and I were gonna go commit a crime before we even committed the crime, you and I would have an alibi and the whole thing would we'd walk through the whole thing. But probably why we don't commit crimes.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

And that's not because we've done it before, haha.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Yeah, no, no, never. Oh man. Well, Suzanne claimed that money was not the motive. And he, Danielle, said that no, it very much was.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

So that's like they're Maybe it wasn't the motive for her.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah, definitely not, I would think. But despite being taken into custody when Suzanne when everyone was arrested, Suzanne, for some fucking reason or another, was released until her trial began.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

So she was arrested for susp at least suspicion of murdering her parents, and then they let her walk free. I don't get it. I don't get it.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yeah, that's kind of nuts.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

So it would take four years for her to go to trial, for the record. And while she was free, she agreed to have an interview with local media. Now, during this interview, she cried and she blamed Danielle for everything that happened and claimed that he had destroyed her family.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Huh. Well, I don't know if we're buying that, friend.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Well, the interview gave her the perception of a distraught and broken woman who seemed innocent and missed her parents and was just caught in between this whole mess.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

So this interview was probably intended to improve her public image, but it actually had the opposite effect. Because unknown to her at the time, a third-party camera had recorded her lawyer instructing her when to cry and when to act like a defensive young woman during the interview.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Ooh, yeah, that doesn't look good.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

It literally showed her acting on his every demand, proving that she was fake and disingenuous.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Ooh, yep, that's our all bad luck.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yeah, that's bad. So on July 17th, 2006, Suzanne, Danielle, and Christian were put on trial for Brazil's equivalent of first degree murder. The jury was given the precise details of what happened that Halloween night in 2002, which were in the late hours of October 31st, Mauricia and Manfield were asleep. At nine PM, Andreas snuck out of the house with his sister, with the full intention of going to a party, which he did, because he's completely innocent of everything else.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Suzanne, on the other hand, had returned home in her car with Danielle and Christian after dropping Andreas off at the party. The family security guard that was posted across the street had seen her, but obviously wasn't alarmed because what's unusual about her coming home?

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

After Suzanne confirmed that her parents were asleep, she then disabled the home alarm comp system, allowing Christian and Danielle in the house. The man then put on surgical gloves and hoods while Suzanne sat on her parents' sofa.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Oh like in their room?

SPEAKER_00 32:13

No, in the living room.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Danielle and Christian then went upstairs with crowbars and then began beating the two of them repeatedly. Oh however, the two parents wouldn't die. Oh. In a panic, the brothers resorted to using towels found in the bathroom to strangle Manfred. But Mauricia was still alive. Danielle searched for a plastic bag and wrapped it around her head, and after a few minutes, Mauricia finally stopped breathing.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Oh that's horrific.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Now, after that was done, the trio staged the scene to look like a burglary, although not very well, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

And then they began stealing all the money they could find. Then they left the property and tried to create their alibis. Christian went to a fast food place where he made sure that he was seen, that everybody saw him there.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

And Danielle and Suzanne spent the night in a motel before asking for a receipt to prove that they had been there.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yeah, that's weird to do.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Right?

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Especially when you should be trying to hide it.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Mm-hmm. So Suzanne then picked up Andreas from the party and traveled back to the house and pretended to be shocked when she essentially traumatized the fuck out of her brother discovering the crime scene.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Yeah, so fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

That poor kid, I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Oh yeah. Just fucking awful.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

During her trial, Suzanne blamed everything on Danielle. She tried to claim that he had constantly fed her a cocktail of drugs and exploited her drowsy state to get her to agree to the murders.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

I love it. These people, man. But the Kravanos brothers claimed that they had only been acting upon her wishes. They, however, did claim that her parents were alcoholics and abusers, and they were simply trying to look out for Suzanne's best interest.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Yeah, I don't know about that either.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Yeah, but both Suzanne and her brother Andreas rejected those claims, and the autopsy found that neither of their bodies had any alcohol in it.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Right. Yeah. So throw that one out the window.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Suzanne was described by prosecutors as the perfect personification of quote unquote evil blondes, and that all she wanted to do was get her hands on her parents' money and assets.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Evil blondes.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Evil blondes. That's that's fucking nuts.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

I got nothing on that one. I mean, I understand that Brazil is mostly like brunettes and black hair and whatever, but evil blondes? Like what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Yeah, that's nuts.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

I've heard, I mean, you get ditzy blondes, but evil blondes? No.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

That's just hilarious. I mean, it must it there must be a trope.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Yeah, there must be in the media. Yeah, like a cultural stereotype or something. Yeah. But fucking bizarre. On July 22nd, 2006, only five days after the trial began, Suzanne, Danielle, and Christian were all found guilty.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

That was quick.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

I know five days. Suzanne.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Well, they did all confess. They were all proved pretty.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

That's true. Why not? Yeah, at that point, why was there even a trial?

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Now, Suzanne and Danielle were both sentenced to 40 years in prison, while Christian was cert was sentenced to 38 years. Because his apparently was just conspiracy or something. I don't know. Weird.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Weird.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

But two years doesn't really make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

And the worst part is when we get to the end, you're gonna find out just how little difference it makes.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

In 2018, just uh twelve years after, Suzanne asked to be released, claiming I love this, claiming that her ego claiming that her egocentrism and personality disorder had led her to commit the crime, and therefore she shouldn't be in prison.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Girl, that's literally no excuse.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Well, that was obviously denied, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Now there are, before we get to the really juicy stuff, there are some sad events in the aftermath of this case.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

I mean, yeah, her poor brother now has nothing and no one.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Suzanne's brother Andreas, as you just said, never really recovered from the death of his parents. He began to aimlessly wander the streets, carrying his family heirlooms, and he would have scars all over his legs. In 2017, three of his neighbors were woken up in the middle of the night to find that their homes had been broken into, and lying on the floor in one of the houses was a disheveled Andreas. When officers arrived, he was taken into custody, and he claimed that he was not violent, but only that he didn't care about his life anymore. Oh he was admitted to a hospital shortly after his arrest. Now their family house, for many years after the murders, was left abandoned. Basically, it was aging and falling into disrepair. In 2014, it was on it was sold to an unknown buyer, and strangely enough, if you try to look it up on Google Maps, the house is just blurred from every street image.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Does it? I guess.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

I mean I mean, like, if you want privacy, like the people who live in that house now probably don't want everyone looking it up on like Google Street View, you know?

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Okay. You know what? That's fair. I didn't even think that it was done by the owners. I thought it was done by Google for some reason.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Oh, you know, all I'm thinking is, yeah, the people who own it now are probably like, I don't want people looking up my house. I know it's notorious. Like, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

I didn't even think of that. I didn't even think of that. Interesting. So despite murdering her parents, Suzanne is actually going to inherit that money.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

What?

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

So remind me to put a murder clause in my will. The fuck?

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Just don't move to Brazil, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Yeah, but check the laws here, man.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Uh, you know, uh, no, but normally, you know what, you're probably right. I haven't looked it up. But normally you don't get you know, you normally don't get that. Yeah. But I was thinking insurance money, but you're right, inheritance? Yeah, that would probably go to you.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Now, for years, both Suzanne and Danielle were incarcerated, but they were also allowed out of prison for special holidays and even vacations.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

You get vacations from prison in Brazil. What a fascinating place.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

You do. And to make things worse, Suzanne had been seen at parties while she was out on her holiday parole. That's fucking bad shit. Yeah, murderers getting vacation time from prison. How amazing is that? I can't even imagine. I can't just imagine being out at a party or you're just out on a holiday, and there's the person who killed someone you knew.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Is there like a uh like if maybe if there's data somewhere that suggests that this like kind of compassionate release reduces re-offenders, but I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

I don't either. I'm I'm with you. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Because I certainly our prison system doesn't prevent re-offenses.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

No, it doesn't. But then, and this is my favorite part of this case, which is gonna piss you off for the record.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Then Brazil had a resime regime change in 2023. And all three of them did indeed. And all three of them were released.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

What?

SPEAKER_00 40:32

The courts allowed them to serve the remainder of their sentences outside of prison, provided that they adhere to specific court mandated conditions.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

That's fucking nuts. Oh, so you just get the rest of your shit on parole?

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Basically. Danielle has maintained a low profile and reportedly works in a field of in the field of arrow modeling and motorbike customization since his release. Christian has had a more tumultuous post-conviction history, as he was sent back to prison in 2017 following an arrest for attempting to bribe a police officer during a domestic dispute.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Bad move, bud.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Well, as of early 2026, he's out again, but he remains under even stricter judicial oversight and monitoring.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

This is nuts.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

And since her release, Suzanne has attempted to maintain a private life and has reportedly established a small handicraft business focused on making custom made embroidery.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

As fucked, bitch. I don't want your murderous embroidery.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

As of the most recent information I could find, Suzanne is living in Bragancia, Paulista, and is in a relationship with a doctor, Philip Zicchini Munis, and she gave birth to her first child, a son, in 2024. And that is the case of the Von Richteffen family.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

I hate that that she's really not being punished.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

I mean, she did spend at least a couple decades, or like 15 to 20 years in there.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

So Yeah, but I for what she did to her brother.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Oh, I I agree. But we we have murderers only get sentenced to 15 years here.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

You know, and you're right about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

Yeah. So she served some prison for this. I don't agree with it, but it's there.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Yeah, I hate it. And I like I feel so bad for her brother. She's literally and the and the fact that she's gonna get she probably got that inheritance now.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

Most likely, yeah. And honestly, I couldn't find anything on her brother in terms of where he is recently. The last thing was that uh that hospitalization. And you're I'm surprised that the courts down there didn't move the inheritance to him.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Yes, they must have like some lack of power in the law to do things like that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

Well, I do know that they had to change laws around. I think we talked about this before. They had to change laws around murder because you could only get a certain number of years for the longest time. Like you would go to jail longer for shooting my domestic animal than you would for murdering me. Right. So it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

That is fucking wild. And I also wonder why, like, why had why had they left all of their inheritance to the older daughter?

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Maybe because she was the first, like the oldest.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

But at the same time, you're right. In uh in many cultures it would go to the oldest boy.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yeah, or at least like sp I don't know, split between your kids?

SPEAKER_00 43:58

You would think so. I again I don't know. It's fucking weird, especially as time went on and her behavior had changed so dramatically, you'd think you'd update it.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Yeah. But I guess you never really think about the possibility that your child might kill you.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Yeah, whoever thinks of that. True.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Right. I almost refuse to think about it.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah, I don't I mean, I don't I'm not gonna have kids, so I don't have to worry about that part, but I get it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Sometimes your kids your kids are full human beings, and human beings are capable of horrible things.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

True. Very true.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Oh the horrors, oh the horrors.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Yeah, so this one wasn't as brutal, but it's still fucked up. Especially the court thing at the end. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

Really fucked up that these, you know, people could just go have normal fucking lives after doing something like this. And I'm I'm like double mad about the inheritance because that's what they wanted anyway.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Right, but she I mean, in realistically, she's not gonna get to do what she wanted. They're not together anymore. I mean, not that they they would have survived all that, but yeah. But I mean, she uh who I mean, whatever. She's married to a doctor now, which is even I think that pisses me off even more. Like this guy's not smart enough.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Right?

SPEAKER_00 45:19

I love that we both made the same noise.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Yeah, I'm just like I'm just pissed off. Fuck this bitch.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Yeah, she marries a doctor and gets to have a family, and you know, it'd be real poetic justice if her kid grew up and killed her. Just saying.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

It would be.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

But it's only a two-year-old at this point, and I don't wish that on the two-year-old as an adult. No.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

So I just wonder what happens. Like, there's no way you get to adulthood without finding out that your parents are murderer.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Oh, he will, you're right. He'll definitely find out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Right. And he'll be like, mommy, why'd you kill Grammy and Grampy?

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Like, by then, not I mean, real I know she didn't prove to be smart as a younger person, but as an adult, maybe by then she'll have worked out what to tell him.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Good fucking luck, dude. I don't know what I would do if my I'd be terrified. If I found out, like, I had a parent who had killed somebody, especially like their own family member, I would be like, I gotta go.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

I'm calling CPS for myself.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

And and let's be honest, like, you don't really know your parents. They're like, I remember growing up and hearing my mother tell me how certain things went down. And then getting older, I learned that that's probably not the way it went down.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

You know, like just yep, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Yeah, you you eventually see more clearly what your parents are were really doing.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

And that they're kind of unreliable narrators, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:46

And and I get why they are, they're protecting you, they don't want you to know the whole truth. They want you, I mean, they if your parents could, they would convince you that a stork dropped you off at the front door. There was no sex involved at all.

SPEAKER_02 46:59

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

So it is what it is, you know. Anyway, we should probably wrap it up. Uh well, thank you, everybody. Once again, I am Janice Dead.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

And I'm Joy Estad.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

And we'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Bye.