WHEN 27-year-old Isaias de Lira was kidnapped by fake cops and shot in the head seven times, his heartbroken sister suspected the evil killer was hiding in plain sight.
Ignored by police, Allira Lira decided to take matters into her own hands – and trained as a lawyer to get justice for her brother.
Now, 21 years later, she reveals how her detective work led to the arrest of the mastermind behind the killing.
Isaias was celebrating his birthday with friends when he was abducted in August 2005 by four men who arrived in a car with covered plates and claimed to be police officers in Paulista, Brazil.
They told him he was being taken to a narcotics station.
Instead they drove him to a dirt road where he was shot seven times in the head.
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Isaias’ body was found the following day – sparking a seven-year-long investigation involving six different detectives.
His sister, 54-year-old businesswoman Allira, tried to warn the police that her brother’s ex-wife, Flavia Alves de Lira, might have been involved – but she was ignored.
When the investigation stalled, she decided to act herself.
She enrolled in law school to understand the justice system and started writing a book about her brother’s case after police failed to act on key evidence she presented years earlier.
Allira told The Sun: “After the crime, I started receiving death threats.
“I was unable to work and went through many hardships. I was forced to sell my belongings to survive.
“Since I wanted to see justice done and couldn’t, I enrolled in law school in 2011 to rebuild my life and seek justice.”
According to Allira, her brother and his ex-wife had a turbulent marriage after tying the knot in 2001.
When Isaias discovered his wife had a lover and broke things off for good, Allira believes Flavia began plotting her revenge.
She first tried to get him jailed by accusing him of shooting at her home.
But when police found he was at a family gathering at the time, she took a different path – and, Allira says, decided to have him killed.
Allira siad: “Flavia had already been threatening Isaias – and witnesses saw both her and her lover making threats against him.
“But the police never took Flavia’s statement or her lover’s – even though I kept insisting that this was the key to closing the police investigation.”
She added: “Flavia and her lover were only questioned after the Public Prosecutor’s Office began its own investigation.
“And the lover confessed that they were having an affair.”
Investigators discovered that just days before the crime, Flavia was asking about the victim and whether he often visited the location where he was dragged to be murdered.
According to the court documents, Flavia hired hitmen to execute her ex-husband.
In 2012, breakthroughs in the case led to the arrest of Flavia and she was jailed until 2014 – when she was released on bail.
In 2015, she stopped appearing at hearings and was considered a fugitive.
The police never took Flavia’s statement or her lover’s – even though I kept insisting that this was the key to closing the police investigation
Allira Lira
In November 2019, 14 years after Isaias was killed, Flavia was convicted of aggravated homicide and received a sentence of 29 years and nine months.
But by the time a verdict came, Flavia had fled the country and vanished.
Then, while Allira was finishing the last chapter of her book, The Crime: from the Police Inquiry to the Jury CourtAllira discovered that Flavia had married an Italian man in 2015 and was living in Tuscany.
After tracking down a marriage certificate, Allira found Flavia changed her last name to “Alves Musto” – letting her live undetected on the run for years.
Allira passed on the information to prosecutors – and fugitive Flavia was arrested by Interpol agents in the town of Volterra on September 13 last year.
“When I saw that she was married and living in Italy, I sent everything to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and demanded action,” Allira said.
“Interpol quickly located and arrested her.”
Extradition proceedings are now underway to return Flavia to Brazil to serve her sentence.
The gruelling search for truth, Allira says, has led to her now being able to help others seek justice.
She added: “Today, I work with a legal team of eight lawyers in various fields.”