Ana Carolina de Silva and Jeferson Luiz Sagaz had been together for nearly 20 years when they checked into a hotel in Brazil. They had celebrated their daughter’s fourth birthday earlier in the day and left her to stay overnight with de Silva’s sister overnight. When the couple didn’t return to pick up the little girl, it concerned loved ones. They never expected police to find the pair dead in a hotel tub.
According to The Sun, Sagaz and de Silva checked into the Dallas Motel in São José, Santa Catarina state, around midnight August 11, 2025. The pair left their young daughter with de Silva’s sister that night. They reported the pair missing to police, who went to the hotel and made a horrific discovery.
Both de Silva, 41, and Sagaz, 37, had died inside a tub filled with extremely hot water. The pair also had a space heater pumping hot air into the room. Investigators performed toxicology tests that allegedly revealed both de Silva and Sagaz had high levels of alcohol and trace amounts of cocaine in their systems, per The Sun.
“The cause of both deaths was exogenous poisoning, favouring the process of heatstroke with intense dehydration, thermal collapse, culminating in organ failure and death,” Chief Medical Examiner Andressa Boer Fronza shared.
Investigators believe the couple died suddenly, but de Silva’s family took issue with the investigation. In a statement obtained by The Sun, the family noted that de Silva did not use drugs. They expressed “concerns of possible forced ingestion or poisoning.”
“It is with deep indignation that we, the family of Ana Carolina de Silva … repudiate the fake news that has been spread,” the statement read.
“Although reports indicate the presence of substances in her blood, we affirm with complete certainty that Ana was not a drug user. Given the inconsistencies, we raise serious concerns about possible forced ingestion or poisoning and demand a rigorous, transparent, and impartial investigation,” the family added in the statement.
According to The Sun, following the statement’s release, the Civil Police told Globo G1 that they would not comment further on the case. Sagaz, who served in the military police, and de Silva, who owned a nail business, had no history of violence. Family is caring for their orphaned daughter.
