Netflix 'Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime': What secrets lay in Elize's troubled past?
The gruesome true crime story of Elize Matsunaga who shot and dismembered her husband, sending shock waves through Brazil, will soon be explored in deep detail in the documentary 'Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime' on Netflix. Before this marriage came to its gruesome end though, the love story between Elize Matsunaga and Marcos Matsunaga was something like a cross between 'Pretty Woman' and Cinderella. Marcos, a wealthy Japanese businessman who was the heir to a major food company, first met Elize through an escorts service, a meeting which led to the two then falling in love and getting married, even though Marcos was married at the time he met Elize.
It seemed that Elize who had a troubled life till this point had finally found her happily ever after. Elize who went by the surname Araújo before marriage came from a poor family in the southern state of Paraná and grew up in a very rustic setting in a wooden house with no indoor bathroom. Her father was absent from her life from the age of three and since her mother had to move away to earn a living as a maid, Elize was raised by her grandparents and her aunt who she considered her real mother. If you enjoy documentaries on true crime, then some of Netflix's other crime documentaries such as 'American Murder: The Family Next Door', 'Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness' and 'Murder Among the Mormons' should interest you.
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When she was finally reunited with her mother at the age of ten, it was not a happy experience. Elize's mother had a new husband who allegedly abused Elize. However, when Elize told her mother, her mother didn't believe her. This led to Elize running away from home at fifteen. However, she was tracked down and sent to live with her aunt, who convinced her to train as a nurse technician which they scraped the money together for.
But Elize wanted to become a lawyer and when she found that a friend was paying for her college tuition by working as a prostitute, she decided to follow suit and ended up meeting her future husband Marcos. It was a life full of privilege for Elize as Marcos Matsunaga seemed to have a penchant for living life large. He collected wine and weapons, had a pet boa constrictor called Gigi and liked to hunt.
The passion for wine and marksmanship courses seemed to be hobbies that both Elize and Marcos seemed to like to share. Some feel that Elize had perhaps become too accustomed to this privileged life and wanted to keep it going at any cost, by killing her husband and making away with his money. Others in the trailer of 'Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime' say that no one kills their cash cow.
Was Elize simply greedy for more money to leave her days of poverty behind her for good or was it the terror of another woman taking over her privileged lifestyle, once she found out that Marcos was cheating on her, that led to her shooting and dismembering her husband? To find out more you can catch 'Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime' on Netflix on July 8. You can catch the trailer here.
