Brazil police corporal placed in preventive detention for alleged femicide of wife in Salvador

A court in Salvador converted the arrest of police corporal João Marcelo Araújo Hermano into preventive detention after he voluntarily appeared at the city's homicide department with a lawyer. He is the primary suspect in the femicide of his wife, Corporal Celeste Martins Oliveira do Nascimento, who was shot in the back of the head while seated on a sofa in their apartment in the Barbalho neighborhood on Friday, May 3.

The investigation, led by the 3rd Homicide Division, classifies the killing as femicide. Both victims served in the Bahia Military Police intelligence unit and had been married for two years. The State Secretariat of Public Safety and the Bahia Police issued statements of condolence and confirmed that the case is under active investigation, with administrative measures being taken against the suspect. The murder adds to Brazil’s alarming femicide statistics, which recorded 399 cases in the first three months of 2026.