According to Aceti, it was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in May 2001 but because of the amount of work – the office handles nearly 2,000 cases a month – they had been unable to review it or send it on to the Homicide Division. The information in the Investigations Center’s database was inaccurate. Now, with the documents in his hands, the district attorney intends to contact the chief of the Homicides Division, Paulo Passos, who is in charge of the case, to work out a strategy for continuing the search for the guilty.

Coutinho da Silva was editor and publisher of the newspaper Cachoeiras Jornal in Cachoeiras de Macacu and a stringer for Nosso Jornal of São Gonçalo, both cities in Rio de Janeiro state. He was killed as he drove his car on Edson Avenue in São Gonçalo. He was shot 14 times.

Aceti, district attorney in the 6th Criminal Investigation Division of the 2nd District of the Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutor’s Office, believes the investigation into Coutinho da Silva’s death was badly conducted. "There are at least four lines of investigation. It’s like a kids’ soccer game – wherever the ball goes, they all run after it, that’s why no one has been charged yet," he said. There were a lot of leads but none was followed up in depth, there were several suspects but there was nothing firm about any of them.

To Aceti it is not unusual in cases such as this for there to be a number of theories that weaken the focus. "Although it is not easy, because it involves the criminal underworld, I believe it is not impossible to being the guilty to trial," Aceti said. "that is going to depend on what resources the state provides for the investigation, because it is very dangerous to go out on the street with just one weapon." He added that the suspects’ telephones need to be wiretapped.

These simple, basic things were not taken into account," Aceti said, although he recognized that when one sole detective has to investigate 3,000 murders, as happens in Rio de Janeiro, things become difficult.