Killing of Lucas Terra

The Lucas Terra case refers to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old teenager: Lucas Vargas Terra.

The crime took place on March 21, 2001, in Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, and was allegedly committed by two pastors of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The case gained national and international repercussions.

His photo first appeared in the newspaper Correio in May 2001.

On the night he disappeared, on March 21, 2001, the boy called his father, Carlos Terra, from a public telephone, informing him that he was with Pastor Silvio Roberto Galiza and due to the time he was going to sleep at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, in the neighborhood of Rio Vermelho.

During the searches, Pastor Galiza told contradictory versions about the last time he saw Lucas.

According to the prosecutor in the case, Davi Gallo, the pastor was close to the phone Lucas called and the searches were "blurred" by false information.

On March 23, 2001, a body was found inside a burned crate in a vacant lot on Avenida Vasco da Gama.

The body was put on hold for forty-three days at the Instituto Médico Legal (IML), awaiting a DNA test.

It was pointed out that the body would be that of Lucas Terra due to a lock of hair and parts of the clothes that were left intact, which days later was confirmed by the police expert report.

The medical report revealed that there was an attempt to asphyxiate him and that afterwards he was charred to such an extent that it was impossible to determine the cause of death and whether there was sexual abuse or not; this detail led the prosecutor to believe that "there was certainly an act of sexual violence".

Criminal experts found remains of tissue similar to that found in the Rio Vermelho church on the body, linking the crime to Galicia and Universal.

Lucas was buried in Bosque da Paz Cemetery.

The crime took place days before Lucas and his father would immigrate to Italy, where his mother, Marion Terra, was already living.

According to witnesses, the boy was a very participatory member within the church and Galiza became obsessed with Lucas in a short time, demonstrating a domineering attitude towards him.

The pastor was bothered when Lucas was close to the girls and always invited him to sleep in the church with other boys, which was unknown to Carlos Terra.

The pastor's superiors transferred Galiza to another institution after discovering that he slept in the same bed with Lucas in church, while the other boys slept in a separate room.

However, after the transfer, Galiza continued to visit the Universal that Lucas attended.

The pastor had already been expelled from another religious community, which earned him the nickname "The Secretary of the Devil" by residents of the neighborhood.

Witnesses who testified against Galicia were threatened by other church members.

The witness who was Lucas' girlfriend, A.P.R.M., 17, said she was harassed, humiliated and expelled.

The same was reported by the witness M.O.C.

"I was threatened and even going to church for 20 years, they said I was supposed to shut up. The regime is military. They say that [people] have to say everything in the name of the Lord, even lying. That's because I heard the pastor Silvio contradicting himself as to where he said he had left Lucas."

The reporting team of the newspaper A Tarde was also threatened and persecuted by order of Bishop João Leite, who called his security guards, preventing other members of the church from being interviewed by journalists.

Carlos Terra was also threatened, which led him to ask the Public Ministry for help.

In October 2001, the investigation was completed and Silvio Galiza was accused of Lucas' death, but his arrest was not decreed, which only happened after Carlos Terra camped outside the public prosecutor's office in Salvador.

Lucas's parents turned to Human Rights NGOs and the Ministry of Justice.

Carlos Terra went to deliver a letter to the UN office (United Nations) in Switzerland, where he questioned the delay in the trial and where the financial resources of Silvio Galiza came from to be defended by one of the most expensive lawyers in Brazil, since he lived on the outskirts.

When giving his statement, in July 2002, Pastor Fernando was detained under the judge's observation, after contradicting himself several times.

Publicist and friend of Carlos Terra, Toni Costa, was enrolled in the witness protection program in 2003.

These protests culminated in the scheduling of the first trial in June 2004.

It was featured on Rede Globo's Linha Direta on November 30, 2006.

It was listed in 2019 by Correio as one of the crimes that "marked the last 40 years in Bahia".

Lucas Terra allegedly suffered sexual assaults and was burned alive allegedly by Pastor Silvio Roberto Galiza, a bishop, a worker, and a security guard at the Universal headquarters in Salvador.

So far, only Pastor Galiza has been condemned by justice.

After being convicted of moral damages, the Universal Church paid two million reais to Lucas Terra's family.

The case is still open.

The popular jury of the case was postponed in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, a public petition was opened asking the Judiciary of the State of Bahia to set the date of the Jury Court.

The trial of the case will start on April 25, 2023, at the Ruy Barbosa Forum, in Salvador.