Netflix released a documentary that summarizes the events of the crime that shook Brazil in 2008. It is titled Isabella: The Nardoni Caseand is shaping up to be one of the true crime most terrifying of the year. It lasts 104 minutes.
The story goes back to March 29, 2008, the day on which Isabella Nardini, 5 years old, was found dying in the garden of her building, in São Paulo, Brazil. She had fallen from the sixth floor.
The girl lived with her father, Alexandre Alves Nardoni (29), and her stepmother, Ana Carolina Jatoba (24). She was the daughter of Ana Carolina Oliveirawho separated from Alexandre 11 months after having her.
Isabella’s case shocked Brazil in 2008.
What happened to Isabella?
That was the big question that Brazilian society asked itself at that time. The case was quickly publicized – President Lula da Silva spoke about it – and, consequently, the need to find a guilty party became urgent.
During the night of the 29th, the security officer of the building where the Nardonis lived heard a noise in the garden. He approached the place, noticed a lump and, as he got closer, he discovered Isabella dying.
The girl’s father came running to the scene and placed his ear against Isabella’s chest to see if she was still alive. Meanwhile, the stepmother was desperately calling the minor’s mother and the neighbors were asking for an ambulance.
The 104-minute documentary is available on Netflix.
Health personnel took more than half an hour to arrive. They tried to revive Isabella for 34 minutes, but to no avail: the girl lost her life in the vehicle that was taking her to the hospital.
How had Isabella gotten there? Had she fallen? Had they pushed her?
father’s explanation
The first version indicated that on the day of the murder, Alexandre left his girlfriend and their two children, aged 11 months and 3 years, in his car, went up to the apartment to put Isabella to bed, and when he came down he found the scene described above.
Alexandre and Ana Carolina told the police that a thief had broken into their home and thrown the girl off the balcony.
Alexandre, the girl’s father, and Ana Carolina, her stepmother.
However, the police operation deployed after the appearance of the body would gradually show that the man and his wife were not as innocent as they seemed.
more and more complicated
In contrast to the accounts of Alexandre and Ana Carolina, Isabella’s house did not show signs of burglary. Nothing was missing.
The protective screen on the apartment window was intentionally cut; there were bloodstains in Isabella’s stepbrothers’ room -the room from where the girl had fallen-, in the corridor, on the door handle and on the sheet where Alexandre had laid the little girl.
Ana Carolina, Isabella’s biological mother.
Clues pointed to the girl’s father and stepmother as the culprits, but there was still no convincing evidence to convict them. At the same time, society practically did not let them out into the street.
When the first forensic reports appeared, the picture of the couple darkened.
Isabella had signs of suffocation and bruise marks. The low number of her fractures cast doubt on the theory that the girl had just fallen and some injuries to her wrists revealed that she had been thrown out of the window holding her from them.
Alexandre being arrested.
A video also appeared of the hours before the death of Isabella de Alexandre shopping in a supermarket with a different T-shirt than the one she was wearing when she found her dying daughter. That garment had remnants of the protective window screen…
doomed
The accumulation of evidence led the authorities to find Alexandre and Anna Carolina responsible and to convict them of infanticide.
Police determined that the blood spilled in the apartment was there because the couple had tried to clean up the crime scene. There was no doubt that it was them and that the thief story was a failed alibi.
Alexandre and Ana Carolina were convicted of killing Isabella.
On May 7, 2008, Judge Mauricio Fossen he ordered the preventive detention of the couple and, at the beginning of 2009, both were taken to popular trial. This began on March 22, 2010 and ended on March 27 with the ruling: Nardoni had to serve 31 years, 1 month and 10 days in prison and Ana Carolina, 26 years and 8 months.
Why did they do it?
The sick jealousy of Isabella’s stepmother was pointed out as the motive for the murder.
Ana Carolina was angry with her husband’s ex -who has the same name as her- and, due to her irrepressible jealousy, Isabella’s presence in her house annoyed her every other weekend.
Knowing this, it was learned that the girl, before arriving at her building on the fateful March 28, had been beaten by her stepmother in the car. She had lost blood and Ana Carolina, with whom she got along very badly, he had tried to suffocate her.
Since Ana Carolina and Alexandre believed that she was dead, they both threw her from the window of their house to hide the supposed murder.
Alexandre continues to say that he is innocent.
What happened to the life of…?
Six years after the crime, Isabella’s biological mother remarried and had a son.
In 2017, the stepmother achieved progression to the semi-open prison regime, a benefit that Alexandre also achieved in 2019.
At the trial, the stepmother said she had a good relationship with Isabella, and Alexandre said the police had forced him to admit to the crime. They are still considered innocent.
