In an unbelievable tale of resilience and justice, Gislayne Silva de Deus, a 36-year-old police officer, has successfully tracked down and arrested the man responsible for her father’s murder—Raimundo Alves Gomes—25 years after the crime occurred.
The tragedy began on February 16, 1999, when nine-year-old Gislayne’s father, Givaldo Jose Vicente de Deus, was shot dead over a petty £20 debt in a local bar in Boa Vista.
Givaldo was playing pool when Gomes confronted him about the debt. After an altercation where Givaldo attempted to resolve the issue by offering a freezer, Gomes returned armed and fatally shot Givaldo. He was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries shortly after.
Initially arrested, Gomes was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 12 years. However, he remained free during the appeals process.
In 2016, after his final appeal was rejected, a warrant was issued for his arrest, but he disappeared, leaving Gislayne and her family in despair. “We got used to living with uncertainty, always wondering if we would ever be able to locate him,” Gislayne shared with Brazilian news outlet G1.
The murder deeply affected Gislayne and her siblings, but it also instilled in her a determination to seek justice for her father. In 2022, she joined the police force as a prison officer, dreaming of the day she would see Gomes serve his sentence. Despite her efforts, Gomes managed to evade capture until one of Gislayne’s uncles spotted him later that year. Unfortunately, he fled before authorities could act.
In July 2023, Gislayne took another step by applying to join the state’s Civil Police. Once in the General Homicide Division (DGH), she gathered information on Gomes’s whereabouts, eventually locating him in a rural area outside Boa Vista.
On September 25, 2024, Gislayne and her team executed the arrest order. The moment she confronted Gomes at the police station was recorded and shared online. “It’s because of me that you are here,” she stated defiantly, adding, “You are now going to pay.”
Reflecting on the moment, Gislayne said, “When I saw the man who was responsible for my dad’s death was finally in handcuffs, I couldn’t hold back the tears.” She described it as an “explosion of feelings” that transformed into tears of relief. “My dad was an honest and hard-working man… What happened could easily have sent us on a different direction, but our mother always taught us to follow the right path,” she said.
Gislayne expressed a sense of closure with Gomes’s arrest, stating, “With his arrest, I cleansed my soul and that of my entire family. It was the end of a cycle. Today we have peace and the feeling that justice was served.” While she acknowledged that her father’s return was impossible, she affirmed, “This won’t bring our father back, but [the killer] will serve the sentence he should have served many years ago.”
Raimundo Alves Gomes was presented before a judge on September 26, and his conviction was upheld, finally sending him to prison.
