Two men in suits, lead masks on their faces, a cryptic note, and no cause of death. Was it a secret ritual, a UFO encounter, or something even stranger? Decades later, the mystery still haunts Brazil. Step into one of the most baffling unsolved cases ever recorded.
The Discovery
August 20, 1966.
An 18-year-old boy had been looking for a place to fly kites on Morro do Vintém, a hill in the city of Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, when he made a shocking discovery and called the police.
Upon arriving, authorities were met with a bizarre scene.
Two male bodies lay side by side on the grass in an area of difficult access due to the terrain and dense vegetation. Both wore well-pressed suits under rain jackets, and had their hands behind their heads. Their face expressions calm, but the strangest part was the lead masks covering their eyes and two notes that were found on one of the bodies.
One of them contained a sequence of codes — E 488 / ECL 82 / 12 AU 7 / 6 CS 6 — and the other the instructions:
“16:30hs be at the specified location. 18:30hrs take pills, protect the metals and await signs from the mask.”
Who Were They?
The men were identified as Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, both from the city of Campos dos Goytacazes — the second-largest city in the state of Rio de Janeiro at the time — over 240 km (149 miles) from where their bodies were found.
They were electronic technicians and worked fixing TVs, radios, and other electronics and had been last seen by their families three days earlier, on August 17. They often traveled to buy electronic parts, and that had been the reason given for the trip in question.
When they arrived in Niterói, which is connected to the city of Rio de Janeiro by a bridge, they stopped at a bar and bought a bottle of water from a woman working there. She later told police that one of them seemed nervous and kept checking his watch, as if he were late for something important. The next time they would be seen, they’d be dead!
The Investigation
The recovery of their remains was only finalized the next day because access to the site was so difficult. They were taken to be examined, but — for some reason — the bodies were released before the cause of death could be confirmed.
It is said that their internal organs were removed for further analysis, but due to a malfunction in the mortuary’s freezer, the organs decomposed before they could be properly examined. This made it impossible to determine the cause of death with certainty. Because of that, the coroner responsible for the autopsy refused to sign the reports and another doctor was called in to sign it, which raised even more questions at the time.
Friends and family claimed that the two men had been involved in a cult and believed they could make contact with both the dead and extraterrestrial beings. That was corroborated when a book on alien contact was found in the home of one of them.
One of the men’s coworkers claimed that the lead masks had been made by one of the victims and when he asked the men what he was doing, he reportedly said:
“I’m saving the world from imminent destruction.”
Another interesting detail was that the timeline reconstructed by investigators left a three-hour gap in which the men may have met a third person. This theory is supported by the fact that the note with the cryptic message had been written in Miguel’s handwriting, but was worded in a way that didn’t match his education level, and by a handkerchief with initials that didn’t match either of the bodies that was also found on the scene.
In addition, the investigators concluded that the Manoel and Miguel had died elsewhere and that their bodies had been moved to Morro do Vintém. However, there were no signs of dragging, adding yet another layer to the mystery.
UFOs and Rumors
As if all of that wasn’t already creepy enough, local residents reported seeing strange lights hovering above the hill around the time the men were believed to have died. One witness claimed to have seen “a shiny orange disk with blue beams coming out of it,” and others reported flickering lights that moved unnaturally.
And, on top of that, it is said that until today no vegetation grows on the exact spot the bodies were found, even though there is no trace of radiation or chemicals — though I should note this is mostly hearsay, and I couldn’t find any reputable photos or videos of the spot.
Theories That Still Circle the Case
Despite investigations by police, doctors, ufologists, and journalists, no definitive answer was ever found, only theories that go from plausible and inclusive to fantastical, including:
- Overdose of psychedelic drugs
- A double suicide (though no note was ever found);
- Lightning strike, but there were no burn marks or visible signs of such on the bodies or vegetation;
- Extraterrestrial contact;
- Murder tied to the illegal trade of radioactive materials, possibly involving a third person — someone never identified, but who may have owned the mysterious handkerchief.
Years later, the police attempted to reopen the case — but, allegedly, all the files had mysteriously vanished, making it impossible.
To this day, this case is the subject of conversation and debate across the internet, with hundreds of YouTube videos made about it and other countless blog and news outlets posts that appear ever-so-often to resurface interest in the case. Though today it is relegated to a B-side of Brazilian creepy stories, attracting more true-crime and mystery fans than anyone else.
Maybe we’ll never know for sure what happened, but this case is already marked as one of the weirdest in Brazil’s history.
What do you think happened on Vintém Hill? Share your theories and insights in the comments below!