The United States prides itself as the beacon of “Liberty and Justice for All”. However, true justice proves to be elusive to the family of Jhessica Freitas Almeida da Silva, a young Brazilian woman whose death was never investigated.

 

Jhessica was living her dream of working and attending college in the United States. After completing a 2-year Au Pair program, she continued on as a live-in nanny for the same affluent family she was an au pair for in Long Island. However, on April 1st of 2012, Jhessica’s parents – Joao and Christina da Silva – received a devastating call: their dear 20-year-old daughter was found dead, hanging by a belt in her closet. The cause of the death determined by the police authorities was suicide. But as Jhessica had regularly called her parents on a nearly daily basis while living in the U.S., her family is highly doubtful she committed suicide as there was no suicide note or any significant sign of depression prior to her death.

 

When Jhessica's father made the unpleasant trip to New York to tie up loose ends and claim his daughter's body, he encountered several peculiar facts. Joao was only able to confirm and recognize Jhessica’s body by means of a picture, which he was never allowed to keep. Neither was Joao granted any police report regarding his daughter’s death. But what brought the most concern to Joao was that all of Jhessica’s belongs, including her iPhone and computer, were given away to a church charity by the host family, without her family’s permission. Such devices may have contained information relevant regarding Jhessica’s death. And if it wasn’t enough, the host family also insisted to pay the expenses to have Jhessica’s remains cremated and sent her body to cremation also without Jhessica’s family authorization, which Joao was able to stop in time.

 

Unsatisfied with the U.S. and NY authorities support and efforts to unveil Jhessica’s death, on March of 2013, her parents paid a police injunction in Brazil to exhume their daughter’s body. To their surprise, a substantial amount of the doxylamine, a powerful sedative also known as the “rape drug” was present in Jhessica’s liver. As the exhumation was performed more than a year after her death, the presence of this drug makes a seriously wonder of what in fact caused Jhessica’s death. Joao and Christina have long felt that foul play may have been involved in Jhessica's death. They spent a week visiting her in Long Island about a month prior to her death and she was extremely happy and excited for college. She had just paid for her next semester of school at Suffolk Community College. Could it really be true that a young, happy, and joyful girl who was enjoying the fruits of living abroad, and without any history of drug or alcohol abuse, committed suicide so unexpectedly? 

 

Her family is justifiably frustrated that neither the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nor the National Human Rights Secretariat has given more attention to this matter. Unfortunately, Jhessica’s family is running out of funds to exact justice for their daughter. But, with your help, they can originate a formal investigation into Jhessica’s death.

There are a number of ways interested people can assist Jhessica’s family. Please share her story!

 

There are a number of ways interested people can assist Jhessica’s family.  Please share this article!

 

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