Itaberli Lozano: Boy From Brazil, 17, Stabbed To Death By His Own Mother For Being Gay
A mother near Sao Paolo, Brazil recently confessed to stabbing her oldest son to death due to her inability to accept that he was gay.
The charred remains of Itaberli Lozano, 17, were located on January 7 in a sugar cane field off of Cravinhos, a municipality of Brazil, after the teenager’s grandmother first reported his disappearance in late December, according to a translated report from Portuguese news outlet UOL. The boy’s mother, 32-year-old Tatiana Lozano Pereira, would ultimately relay to law enforcement that she purposely ended her son’s life after he allegedly brought drugs and men into the home she once shared with him, and after he purportedly ran away to live with family members.
Pereira originally relayed to police that on December 27, she and Lozano got into an altercation that caused the young man to flee to his grandmother’s home for safety reasons. Two days later, Itaberli supposedly returned to his mother’s home, full of rage, and threatened to kill her, his stepfather, and his three-year-old step-sibling, which caused his mother to grab a knife and stab her eldest child in reported self-defense.
She then, with help from her husband, concealed her son’s body and carried it off to a field near the Highway José Fregonezi, where she buried him.
Almost immediately after sharing her side, investigators were able to poke holes in Pereira’s story, starting with a December 26 Facebook photo post made by Itaberli which displayed injuries that he incurred from several neighborhood boys that his mother hired to beat him up (graphic images may be seen below). Moreover, the arrests of two other young men last Friday who were purportedly connected to Itaberli Lozano’s passing uncovered more details about the crime.
No face o Itaberli tinha publicado fotos denunciando que a mãe o agredia, aparentemente dias antes de ser assassinado. Apagaram o post de lá pic.twitter.com/p4SGs4Cb05
— Markos ? (@MarkosOliveira) January 12, 2017
As stated by the two during their confessions, Pereira was able to lure her child back to her home under the guise of making peace with him on December 29. Instead, once Lozano entered his mother’s door, the assailants, reportedly 18 and 19 years old, were ordered to pounce on the defenseless teen and beat him within an inch of his life to teach him “a lesson.”
After not being able to stomach of thought of killing him, Pereira was said to have brushed the boys aside to finish the deed herself with a knife. Lozano’s stepfather, Alex Pereira, 30, assisted with burning and burying Itaberli afterward. His body was said to have been so badly damaged that police were only able to confirm his identity through a bracelet that the young man often showed off in his Facebook photos, still being attached to the wrist of his burned body.
Speaking with the media following the gruesome discovery, Itaberli Lozano’s uncle, Dario Rosa, expressed that Pereira always had a problem with his nephew’s sexuality.
Itaberli tenia 17 anys quan el passat 29 de desembre la seua mare el va assassinar perquè era gai: https://t.co/AX1JZsDSgm pic.twitter.com/ECPJ4lEnZo
— Vicent Costa ???? (@vcosta89) January 17, 2017
“He had a job, he was very polite, [and] he never quarreled with anyone,” Rosa stated. “He only had problems with his mother, who did not accept that he was a homosexual.”
Rosa also denounced his sister’s claims regarding Itaberli’s rumored drug use, and openly mourned the loss of his young relative.
“A mother has to love her son, not kill [them],” he continued. “[This] family is torn, [and] it will be difficult to recover.”
Like Lozano’s uncle, his grandmother also gave credence to Pereira’s guilt by first insinuating that she might have had something to do with Itaberli’s death when she placed the missing person’s report. In early conversations with Brazilian police, the mother quickly implicated three men in the young boy’s death, but never once mentioned herself as being part of the act.
Both Pereira and her husband now face charges of murder and concealment of a corpse for illegally discarding the body of Itaberli Lozano, so says SigaMas. They will be held in jail for 30 days before seeing a judge to begin court proceedings on the matter later this year. Incidentally, video footage of what has been noted as the scene of Lozano’s burial, including flashes of his burnt remains, were posted on YouTube sometime Tuesday, according to a report from Unicorn Booty.
[Featured Image by IGphotography/iStock]
