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03rd Jan 2023

Social media posts played a vital role in Bruna Fonseca’s murder case

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Utterly heartbreaking.

Social media posts are believed to have played a vital role in locating the movements of Bruna Fonseca in the hours leading up to her body being discovered in a Cork flat.

The 28 year old’s body was discovered in a property on Liberty Street, Cork on New Year’s Day.

Gardaí have used social media and CCTV footage to track Bruna’s movements on New Year’s Eve as she celebrated with friends in Cork city in hopes of discovering who she was with on the night of her murder.

This comes as Bruna’s former partner Miller Pacheco was charged with her murder and appeared before a special sitting of Cork District Court yesterday.

The 29 year old is charged with murdering Bruna at No 5 Liberty Street, Cork, in the early hours of New Year’s Day contrary to Common Law and the defendant has an address in Liberty Street, Cork.

The 28-year-old Brazilian woman had posted photos of herself on social media, celebrating the New Year with friends, shortly before she was killed.

Gardai attended the woman’s flat at 6.30am on Sunday. They met a man outside and he took them to a bedroom on the premises over Picasso Hair Studio on 5 Liberty Street in Cork’s city centre. The Irish Mirror reports that Ms Fonseca appeared to have been ‘beaten to death and strangled’ and was unresponsive. She was subsequently pronounced dead at the scene.

Ms Fonseca’s body was removed from the scene and taken to Cork University Hospital for a post-mortem examination by Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster.

Ms Fonseca had been living in Ireland since September and was a qualified librarian and a graduate of the Centro Universitário de Formiga.

The team at Mercy University Hospital, where Ms Fonseca worked as a contract cleaner, have paid tribute to their late colleague: “On behalf of management and staff at Mercy University Hospital Cork and Bidvest Noonan’s Contract Cleaners we are saddened and shocked at the tragic and unexpected death of Bruna Fonseca.

“Even though she was only working for a short time for the company at the hospital she was considered a hard and diligent worker and an esteemed colleague.

“We extend our deepest condolences to her friends in Cork, and her family and friends in Brazil. May she rest in peace.”

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