BASED ON THE PODCAST "ABANDONED: THE WOMAN IN THE DECAYING HOUSE"
BY CHICO FELITTI
THE FOLLOWING AUDIO RECORDINGS ARE AUTHENTIC,
RECORDED BY CHICO FELITTI FOR "ABANDONED: THE WOMAN IN THE DECAYING HOUSE" PODCAST
THE ASSOCIATED SCENES ARE RECONSTRUCTIONS BASED
ON THE PARTICIPANTS' TESTIMONIES AND DOCUMENTS OF THE CASE
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS DOCUMENTARY
IS TO DEPICT THE FACTS ABOUT THIS CASE OF SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC INTEREST
WE CONDEMN ANY ACT OF AGGRESSION OR PERSECUTION IN ANY FORM
AGAINST PEOPLE DEPICTED HERE
WARNING: THIS DOCUMENTARY CONTAINS DEPICTIONS
OF PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE AND DISCRIMINATORY ATTACKS
THAT MAY TRIGGER SOME PEOPLE
This was going to be a federal criminal case
against Renê and Margarida Bonetti.
What on Earth was that woman even thinking?
If she had a problem with the American justice system,
she wouldn't get through immigration, she'd stay.
BONETTI: BRAZILIAN ENGINEER 51 YEARS OLD
ABANDONED: THE WOMAN IN THE DECAYING HOUSE
I used to live with her mother and Mr. Geraldo,
for years and years.
I lived with them over in São Paulo.
Ms. Lourdes and I used to get along well.
But she was really hotheaded, you know?
Sometimes, she sounded like thunder.
Or like a bad storm.
And I would get away.
I didn't even want to know about her shrieking that cut the air.
One thing Ms. Margo really liked was rice with potatoes.
So, I used to make her a delicious rice dish,
with potatoes and all that.
We got along very well at first.
In my eyes,
she was almost like a big child, you know? Truly.
And then I grew up and everything,
but it was my wish to always have her with me wherever I was.
Margarida says she met Hilda when she was a child
and from that moment on, they were best friends.
In a certain point, Margarida even states
that she received Hilda as a gift from her family.
Hilda was hired to be the maid and she lived there, in the house.
She was a simple person and her family was very poor, you know?
So she was just a simple maid.
In Brazil, there was a term for domestic servants, the word "criada".
"Criada" is basically a maid who is raised,
they are adopted, and they grows up alongside the family.
Margarida's home was a house built after the heyday of the coffee.
A period when slavery was rampant.
Incidentally, we all saw what happened in Washington.
She brought along the tradition of slave culture into the present day.
Life, for me, was always bitter, know what I mean?
Always lonely,
because I never had a mom, I never had a dad, I never had...
Everyone took advantage of me in one way or another, you know?
First of all, in Brazil,
they didn't teach her anything.
She stayed at the exact same level as when she originally left her village.
They had beaten her to the point that they buried her whole personality,
her whole way of being!
Her character... Do you understand?
And over here, it was worse!
As soon as Margarida Bonetti was indicted,
she said she had to return to Brazil because she had a sick relative.
I'll tell you something.
I wasn't on the run, I was looking after my mother over here,
and after that, my own health problems were preventing me from traveling!
I couldn't risk worsening my health.
How could I testify to something when I couldn't even stand upright?
I couldn't even stand up! I was bleeding! A lot!
From the very first moment
the FBI got in contact with us,
there was an open channel of communication,
so they kept us informed about everything regarding that.
About the case and Margarida's sudden escape as well.
I think they considered her, at the time, as a fugitive of the U.S. Justice System
who was taking refuge in her native country, Brazil.
Margarida was in Brazil, and she had left her husband behind
to answer for something they were both being accused of.
SEARCH: INTERVIEW WITH RENÊ BONETTI
RENÊ BONETTI SPEAKS EXCLUSIVELY TO RECORD TV STATION
She was paid normally.
It was all sent over to Brazil because she couldn't be paid here.
If she needed money for anything, I gave it to her.
If she needed a dentist, I took her.
If she needed clothes, we paid for them, we bought them.
She also ate what we ate.
MARGARIDA'S EX-HUSBAND BREAKS THE SILENCE
My father-in-law handled her money, you know?
So, when she said: "Give me my money,"
I wrote down a check and sent it over to her lawyer.
Then she sent it back.
"That sum is too small. We want a million dollars".
I still didn't know how I would live
or where I was going to end up,
but I was tired of running around like a gypsy all over the world, you know?
And I thought to myself: "And now? Now what?
How am I going to live? I have nowhere to stay.
Where am I going to move to? And how am I going to eat?
Where am I...".
No, there were so many things. "Where am I going to stay?".
Sister Manuela had a place for Hilda to stay.
And so, we took Hilda...
well, to an apartment near Sister Manuela's church.
That way, Sister Manuela was nearby.
She stayed hidden away there until the trial.
RECEIVED ON 01-31-2000
THE BONETTI COUPLE'S TRIAL BEGAN LAST WEEK
Depending on the place we were going to,
I had to duck down and cover myself with the lawyer's jacket.
I don't know, it was a circus, you know?
So, Renê, the boss, was sitting right there,
all strait laced and everything with an expression.
Good Lord, what an expression.
And his shameless wife, who should have been there the most
was in São Paulo.
Margarida was still in Brazil, but her address was unknown.
Since Margarida Bonetti left for Brazil, we haven't heard anything more from her
with the exception of the time she called me.
Margarida Bonetti's line of argument,
was that I, as the Brazilian consular authority,
should testify in favor of Renê Bonetti, her husband,
against Hilda's claims,
explaining that the treatment she had been given for those 20 years
was simply normal and acceptable in Brazil,
and that this was merely a "culture shock".
AN ABSURD CASE! A FAMILY PERSON MAID
When I arrived at the courtroom and the trial began,
we realized that Margarida wasn't there.
And we also noticed a certain nervousness from the judge
because she had probably only been informed
a mere moment before that Margarida was absent.
The only person who knew
she wasn't coming back from Brazil was Renê.
I had the opportunity to tell him:
"I told you so.
I warned you, I asked you, I begged you, to make sure Hilda was legal
and you simply refused and she stayed illegally!
Now look at everything that happened!
If you had only done everything legally at the very least,
they wouldn't be able to say anything! Because she was legal!".
And he said: "Yeah...".
But you know he was really stupid, a real imbecile, ok? That man.
So, she started fighting with Hilda almost every day.
There was one day that the two of them started scrapping.
So, Hilda ran out of the house and went to complain to a neighbor.
The neighbor offered her a job: "Bring your papers and I'll employ you".
When she found out she was undocumented, she went and called the police, the FBI,
and that's when the trouble started.
They started asking me and I'm not going to lie,
I have to tell the truth. I'm surrounded by police!
So, she grabbed a handful of hair with both hands
and then pulled hard.
The hair in that spot ripped out of my scalp where she pulled it.
Well, my boss,
he thought everything was all my fault,
everything that happened, that I was to blame for all of it,
that it was my fault.
Then, they came and took me to a little room way at the back.
It was a tiny little room.
And I cried, and cried: "Now what?
If I'm in this little room, does that mean I'm going to prison?
My goodness! What will I do? What's going to happen?" And stuff.
You know when you're in such a state...
that you don't even know what's going on or what's going to happen?
I got the impression
that the prosecutors were giving Renê room to accuse his wife.
To get a lesser sentence this way.
But he never used that angle or even considered it.
He defended his wife to the very end.
Yes, she had a fight with Hilda, ok,
but apart from that, it was my fault.
I was the one who kept Hilda there. I should have sent her back to Brazil.
None of that was her fault.
Then afterwards, I saw that the man was handcuffed.
I said: "Whoa".
Everything that happened between me and her husband...
She should have been there!
She should have been arrested.
After the trial, the American Justice System teamed up
with the Brazilian Justice.
There's a cooperation agreement.
So, the U.S. can say: "Hey, Brazil!
There's this person we want to try, and they're over there.
Can you guys do something about that?"
Knowing that Brazil doesn't extradite its citizens,
the FBI sent a letter to the Brazilian Justice System
requesting legal proof guaranteeing Margarida would be tried in Brazil
and that her assets would be frozen, including the house.
The São Paulo Civil Police went to the abandoned house
which is Margarida's last known address
and they claim to have knocked, but no one was there.
The police tried, but failed to find Margarida.
And with that, she's listed as a fugitive of the United States.
As for the trial
that took place there, was only against Renê, you know?
I was never mentioned.
However, you were wanted and searched for.
-You were put on the FBI's wanted list. -No, no.
Now I want to know why you came to Brazil
and never returned to answer for those charges in the United States.
I'll tell you that!
I would answer your question,
but you just told me something that I never knew about.
So, you just said:
"You were wanted by the FBI, and you were on a list".
What list? Tell me.
The mystery of the Abandoned House never seems to end.
After the podcast's release,
I received a message from a man named Fábio.
He lives in Campinas, a city near São Paulo.
He told me Margarida Bonetti had lived in a place behind his house,
when he and his siblings were little.
This house is located at a humble neighborhood,
far from downtown.
And it was very different from where Margarida had lived before.
This has happened during the first decade of the 2000s.
I had never heard anything about her previously living in Campinas.
So, I went to meet Fábio to find out what else he could tell me.
CAMPINAS 67 MILES FROM SÃO PAULO
-Hello? -Hello, Fábio?
-What's up, Chico? How are you? -I'm good, and you?
-I'm good. -I'm here in Campinas, in the town square.
-Awesome. Bye. -All right, bro. I'll see you soon.
So, why did you message me, Fábio?
Well, bro, I saw an article...
about "The Woman in the Decaying House".
And I saw "Chico Felitti", and thought: "Man, let's take a look".
And I started the infamous scrolling like you do on Instagram,
sometimes YouTube or whatever.
I thought it was interesting, I looked into the case and saw the person,
and thought: "Dude, damn, this person,
Margarida Bonetti, that they're talking about, it's Maria!
The person who lived behind my house".
It was a two-story house and there was a place at the back.
She lived in that little house at the back.
The funny thing is, she lived for years completely disguised.
I mean, you could see that her clothes were all worn out.
Bro, it used to be hot out, like today, 85 degrees,
and she would be out in a sweater.
So, the impression was that Margarida was disguising herself as someone else?
Yeah, right.
She made herself look like a poor little lady.
And maybe the reason she was in that position,
was precisely because she was trying to hide.
It's probably the best place she could have hidden, you know?
Because it's pretty far from the city.
It was really secretive, you know?
You'd look at it and think: "Wow, what's going on in there?".
And we kept looking at it from here, from the front,
looking back there at the house she was living in.
There were some neighbors here who used to see her walking on the streets.
So, she'd come from over there where that pole is,
and she'd come using her walking stick.
She had a big black bag and stuff.
And whatever she saw in the street, she'd pick up.
We would be standing around here.
We'd look at her and say: "Wow, what a strange lady".
Then she would go back inside, and she collected garbage in there.
The smell coming from that house was really strong.
That house was like a trash can.
Garbage in the bedroom, living room, kitchen, and the bathroom.
It was a real dump.
She seemed like she was hiding something, you know?
You could see it in her eyes when she looked at you.
It was almost like she was hiding something,
like a dark past or whatever, you know?
For years Margarida lived disguised as a victim in Campinas.
She was biding her time,
waiting for the statute of limitations to pass.
So, she returned to the decaying house after that period in the countryside,
because she knew she couldn't be tried for her crimes in Brazil anymore.
There were rumors, comments about mistreatment.
I disregarded everything,
because Margarida would never do anything like that.
I don't remember any comments,
but I also don't think that people had no problem with it,
because she gets along with everyone, they all talk to her.
They visit her, she talks to everyone.
So I don't think they had a problem with anything about this story.
What crime could she have committed that was more serious...
so that people wouldn't minimize it?
People created
this false personality, you know?
This Margarida you're talking about, that you're complaining about,
because you think I should say that this person is me.
That person isn't me! I'm not like that!
I'm peaceful and a good person.
I never did anything bad to that lady, I even liked her a great deal. Okay?
So, I was extremely surprised of how she could've been...
how should I put it?
Convinced, influenced, and manipulated into doing the things that she did!
When you've been beaten so much.
With calmness you gain kindness, right?
And so I said:
"With patience, I got there in the end".
This picture here, I painted it as if it were...
Like a beach house, you know?
And so, I had it in my head and I thought:
"I'm going to get home and I'm going to make this painting".
I did all of them just with my fingers.
Then I started doing the paintings, I liked that idea.
So, when I didn't have much to do and I was sad, abandoned and all that,
that's when I started painting these pictures.
They asked me if I would rather go back to São Paulo
or if I would rather stay here.
I told them, I was direct.
I said: "If I have to go back to São Paulo, I would rather stay here".
As for Margarida, if she wanted to change her life,
she could have a very comfortable life.
She has the financial means to make changes to her life.
But she likes to live there in her world
with nature and freedom.
So, she loves that house the way it is.
So she's not going to change anything. She'll live there until she dies.
This house belongs to me. Okay?
And I won't sell it to anyone for anything in the world.
Do you understand?
That was my father and my mother's wish.
And they knew that I am the only person in this family
who'll keep this house exactly the same as it is.
So, that is what I'll do.
MARGARIDA BONETTI NEVER ANSWERED FOR THE CRIMES OF WHICH SHE WAS ACCUSED
IN BRAZIL, THE POLICE INVESTIGATION AGAINST HER WAS CLOSED IN 2005
AND THE CRIME FOR WHICH SHE WAS INVESTIGATED EXPIRED
AS OF THE CONCLUSION OF FILMING THIS DOCUMENTARY IN 2025
MARGARIDA IS LIVING IN RECLUSION IN THE DECAYING HOUSE
RENÊ BONETTI WAS RELEASED FROM PRISON IN 2005
AND HE CONTINUES TO LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES
AFTER THE TRIAL, HILDA ROSA DOS SANTOS
WAS GRANTED A VISA TO STAY IN THE UNITED STATES
HILDA DECIDED TO APPEAR AND SPEAK PUBLICLY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS DOCUMENTARY
THE COURAGE OF PEOPLE LIKE HER, WHO DENOUNCED THEIR EMPLOYERS,
LED TO THE REVISION OF THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES,
IMPACTING THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS OF IMMIGRANTS
YET, THIS TYPE OF CRIME IS STILL A REALITY IN THE WORLD
IN BRAZIL, BETWEEN 1995 AND 2023, MORE THAN 600,000 PEOPLE WERE RESCUED
FROM SLAVE-LIKE WORKING CONDITIONS AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
DIAL 100 TO REPORT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BRAZIL
MARGARIDA, RENÊ AND THEIR RELATIVES
DID NOT WANT TO TAKE PART IN THIS DOCUMENTARY BRAZIL