João Roberto Bolelli

Introduction

João Roberto Bolelli is a 62-year-old Brazilian cattle rancher from Rifaina, in São Paulo state, who is being hunted in a femicide case: the Polícia Civil says he shot his 24-year-old ex-girlfriend, digital-marketing businesswoman Priscila Lacerda Custódio, on the night of October 27, 2026, moments after she told him she was ending their four-month relationship. A São Paulo court decreed his preventive arrest the following day, and he had not been located as of the morning of October 29. He had previously been arrested and convicted for violating a protective order obtained by another former partner. He has not publicly responded to the accusation; his legal representatives say they are reviewing the case and have not been in contact with him.

Background Information

Bolelli ran cattle near Rifaina, on the São Paulo–Minas Gerais border, and in mid-2026 was in a relationship with Custódio, a businesswoman from Perdizes, Minas Gerais, that lasted roughly four months. Brazilian court records cited by g1 show a pattern of violence convictions before the killing: in October 2020 he was sentenced to 15 days in detention for “vias de fato” — a minor assault offense — with the sentence suspended, a conviction upheld by the São Paulo state court of justice in January 2021; the 2021 sentence also recorded an earlier conviction for threats and battery tied to events of December 2017. In December 2021 he was sentenced to three months and 15 days for breaching protective measures obtained by a former partner — the New York Post rendered it as having been “previously banned from seeing a different ex.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged and at large. On October 27, 2026, witnesses told police Bolelli drew a gun and shot Custódio dead at a roadside meeting where she had come to return his pickup truck and end their relationship. São Paulo’s Court of Pedregulho decreed his preventive arrest the next day, noting it faced “a violent suspect,” and he answers to the crime of femicide; he was still at large as of October 29. The charge is unadjudicated and he has not publicly responded to it; his legal representatives say the case is under review and they have had no contact with him.

Custódio had told family and friends she was afraid of him. Relatives testified to police that she had reported assaults and threats by Bolelli, and Itatiaia reported she had shown marks of physical aggression she attributed to him. A friend of hers told Globo, in an account carried by the New York Post, that he had hired people to watch her, threatened to kill her, quizzed her about her trips and accused her of cheating — and that he allegedly assaulted her four days before the shooting. She brought her brother and a friend along on October 27 because she was apprehensive about returning his pickup truck to his ranch.

The meeting never reached the ranch. Custódio left Perdizes that evening with her brother driving the pickup and her friend following in a second car; along the way she moved to the friend’s vehicle to give directions. At kilometer 463 of the Cândido Portinari highway (SP-334), near the gate of a rural property in Rifaina, Bolelli arrived in a white car. Her brother told police he heard her say she wanted to go home and end the relationship. According to the witness accounts, the argument turned on a cell phone: Bolelli demanded back a device he had given her, and she replied she would return it once he returned her own phone. The friend also said he questioned a trip she had made to Sacramento, in Minas Gerais, and accused her of meeting another man. The New York Post’s source described the couple arguing by phone before she even arrived, saying she had finally had enough.

Witnesses told police Bolelli then drew a weapon and fired, hitting Custódio in the chest and arm, then aimed the gun at her brother — who ran for cover — before fleeing. He escaped in the very pickup she had driven out to return; the vehicle was later found abandoned near his property, and her cell phone was seized for analysis. Her brother drove her to the hospital in Rifaina, where she died of her wounds. The Polícia Civil registered the case as femicide.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The killing drew national coverage in Brazil — g1, O Globo, UOL and regional outlets all carried the manhunt — and crossed to American readers through the New York Post the next morning. Friends mourned Custódio in interviews with Globo: Juliana Amaral called her “a wonderful person” whose life “was cut short by an evil man,” adding, “She was beautiful, charming, and extremely polite. In three years of friendship, I never saw her speak badly of anyone.” Her family held her wake and burial in Perdizes on October 28. The court’s arrest decree, quoting the need to restrain “a violent suspect” for the convenience of the proceedings, made the preventive detention official within roughly a day of the shooting.

Current Status

Bolelli answers to the crime of femicide and remains a fugitive: the Polícia Civil requested preventive arrest on October 28, the Court of Pedregulho decreed it the same day, and as of the morning of October 29 he had still not been found. His defense told g1 it was analyzing the case and had not been in contact with him. No trial date appears in the coverage; the femicide accusation is unadjudicated, and nothing in the reporting indicates he has offered any public response. Authorities located the abandoned pickup near his property and seized Custódio’s phone as evidence, but the manhunt itself was continuing.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A rancher who had already served a sentence for breaching one ex-partner’s protective order now faces Brazil’s harshest domestic-violence charge with him at large. Custódio, 24, was buried in Perdizes the day after the shooting, and the record of his prior convictions — assault in 2020, threats and battery from 2017, protective-order violation in 2021 — is now the backdrop every Brazilian outlet leads with. Until he is caught, the case stands as a manhunt: preventive arrest decreed, pickup recovered, and a fugitive last seen fleeing in the truck his girlfriend had come to give back.

Sources

g1 / EPTV (Globo), “Justiça decreta prisão preventiva de pecuarista suspeito de matar namorada 38 anos mais nova em SP,” October 28, 2026 — source
NY Post, “Glam businesswoman, 24, allegedly gunned down by 62-year-old lover moments after dumping him,” October 29, 2026 — source
Paranaíba Mais, “Priscila Lacerda: o que se sabe sobre a morte da empresária em Rifaina,” October 2026 — source
Itatiaia, “Jovem de Minas Gerais é assassinada pelo companheiro em Rifaina-SP,” October 2026 — source