The following article contains real-life spousal abuse caught on camera. The images posted here are extremely disturbing to view. Mature audiences only.
Nobody knows what Tatiane Spitzner could have possibly said or did or what conversations transpired to enrage her husband on the night he tossed her from the 5th-floor balcony.
Sadly, this wasn’t the first time he’s chased her, nor was it the first time that he’s punched her, again and again — the still fresh bruises are evidence of her daily torment. But it was the last time — where the abuse escalated to murder.
Hands-on
From the moment Tatiane Spitzner, 29, and her husband Luis Felipe Manvailer, 32, enter the camera’s view, we can see the abuse. 22 July 2018 at 02:34 am, the couple’s white sedan pulls into the frame. Manvailer, on the driver’s side, draws his hands from the steering wheel and strikes his wife in her face.
Tatiane opens her door. She tries to escape, but her husband yanks her back inside, and they drive into the parking garage where her nightmare continues.
The sickening violence continues in the underground car park with the victim being physically assaulted, kicked, throttled, chased across an underground car park and into the elevator where she is brutally battered, overpowered and restrained as she desperately tries to get away. — The Sun
After screeching the car to a sudden stop inside the parking garage, Manvailer races around to the passenger’s door and rips it open.
Seconds later, he crimps his fingers around her thin neck and, using his body weight, presses her frame against the passenger door; she struggles to gasp a little air.
She is finally released, and like any other horror scene, we desperately want to scream, “RUN! GET AWAY!” But even if she could hear us now, would she run, or like the millions of other women trapped in similar situations, would she feel there is no escape?
“For better or worse”, goes the phrase from marriage vows…for Tatiane Spitzner, this night was for ‘worse’.
Cage
The hunt transitions to the elevator where Tatiane unfortunately finds herself inside the same ‘cage’ as the monster she loved; she has nowhere to run or hide inside the small confines of the elevator.
The maniacal grin on husband’s face gives him an air of confidence as his wife cowers and trembles in fear. At one point in the terrifying video, we can actually see him rolling up his sleeve, simultaneously licking his lips, and imaging the limitless possibilities of pain he can inflict on his captive.
“The video just reflects the levels of violence we have been documenting,” said Maria Laura Canineu, the Brazil director for Human Rights Watch. “What Brazil has to learn is that most of these cases are preventable. It is very rare that a murder is the first case of violence.” — The New York Times.
Brazil (and the world in general) is facing an epidemic. Every country experiences a certain level of domestic spousal abuse, Brazil being the 7th most prolific country of femicide (female homicide by a male) — nearly double the rate of the United States.
Tatiane’s closest friends and family recognized the abuse. In fact, she had sent out a WhatsApp message shortly before her murder saying that her husband “hated her to death.”
The signs were there, but went unheeded for the same reason as others do; only 25% — or less — of Brazilian abused partners actually report their abuse. Tatiane simply did what millions of other women do while being abused; she pulled down her sleeves to cover her bruises, and if the evenings got too violent, more concealer was applied.
There are many reasons — stigma, economic dependence or concern for children, but often, it’s the conviction that the state won’t do anything.” — Ms. Canineu of Human Rights Watch
There is no doubt that the 20-minutes CCTV captures are horrific, but what is more shocking is the 15 minutes that the cameras couldn’t pick up. Inside the couple’s apartment, neighbors reported hearing Tatiane’s “desperate screams for help,” and we can only imagine the horror she experienced while still alive.
An autopsy of Tatiane’s body showed that her hyoid bone had been snapped — a clear sign of strangulation. The medical examiner also noted the “imprints of a pair of hands found on her throat.”
The next time we see Tatiane is when she is thrown from the balcony of the couple’s apartment, as leaked CCTV footage shows.
When the police arrive, they discover Tatiane dead in the couple’s apartment; Luis had run back downstairs to retrieve her body, dragging it back into the elevator and up to the fourth floor. After telling the police that “she jumped,” he fled in his car, almost making it to Paraguay.
“We believe the accused then took the elevator to the ground floor and collected Tatiane’s body, taking it back up to the apartment in the elevator,” said criminal prosecutor Dunia Rampazzo. He continues, “We suspect that before she was killed, Luis subjected his wife to a prolonged period of violent physical aggression. This was not a suicide, but femicide (the killing of a woman by a man on account of her gender). The aggressor then attempted to escape by car.”
Luis Felipe Manveailer was captured 320 kilometers from his apartment. He is currently in prison for the murder of his wife Tatiane Spitzner.
Less than 25% of spousal abuse is reported. Tatiane Spitzner felt she had things under control. Don’t let this happen to you. In the United States, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 800–799–7233.
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