A notorious killer whose crime inspired films has been released from prison.
Cristian Cravinhos is one of the most infamous murderers in South America.
He has been released 23 years after being jailed.
Cristian Cravinhos left Brazil’s infamous Tremembé penitentiary last (5 Mar) night.
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His release came after a court decision allowing him to serve the rest of his sentence outside jail.
Cristian, now 49, was one of three people convicted in the infamous Richthofen case.
Suzane von Richthofen was convicted for masterminding the brutal murders of her own parents in 2002.
The murders inspired the 2021 films ‘The Girl Who Killed Her Parents’ and ‘The Boy Who Killed My Parents’ which depict two different versions of the events.
The crime became one of Brazil’s best known thanks to Suzane’s good looks and her upper-middle-class background.
Psychological tests ruled she was egocentric and had narcissistic personality disorder.
Suzane is claimed to be a distant relative of the German World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron.
Suzane, then 18, plotted the killings with the help of her boyfriend, Daniel Cravinhos, and his brother, Cristian.
On the night of 31 October 2002, Daniel and Cristian entered the family home in São Paulo and killed Manfred and Marísia von Richthofen as they slept.
Initially, the murders appeared to be a robbery gone wrong, but Suzane’s strange behaviour raised suspicions, leading to an investigation.
She eventually confessed to her role in the killings without ever revealing the motive.
A judge granted Cristian’s release because of his good behaviour in prison and a positive psychological evaluation.
The conditions of his release include remaining in his house between 10pm and 6am, shunning bars and gambling houses, and getting a job.
It is not the first time Cristian has been released from jail.
He was first released in 2017 but went back to prison after assaulting a woman and attempting to bribe police in Sorocaba in 2018.
Suzane was taken into custody in 2002 and was sentenced to 39.5 years in prison in July 2006 but was freed in January 2023.
Daniel also received 39.5 years in prison, while Cristian was handed 38.5 years.
Days before the crime, Suzane had disabled the burglar alarm and the CCTV cameras in the family mansion.
After checking her parents were asleep, she opened the door to the brothers, then aged 21 and 26.
The pair went upstairs to the parents’ bedroom, where they struck the couple in the head with iron bars.
Manfred died instantly, while Marísia woke up and tried to defend herself.
As she begged the men not to harm her children, Cristian pressed down on her neck with a towel, breaking a bone.
As the horror unfolded upstairs, Suzane waited calmly in the living room.
After her parents had been killed, she and the brothers staged a break-in and fled.
Suzane returned with her own brother, then 15, early the next morning after he had spent the night at Daniel’s home.
She called the police after “discovering” the crime scene, but detectives found the staged break-in to be “amateur”.
They were also baffled by Suzane’s and Daniel’s amorous behaviour at the police station.
As to why Suzane did it, some say it was because her parents disapproved of her relationship with Daniel, who was unemployed and smoked cannabis every day.
Others say she did it to inherit her millionaire parents’ wealth, as reported by Need To Know.
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