Over the years, some prison inmates have thought of genuinely ingenious methods to try and break out into the world after they’ve been locked away.
Some dig elaborate tunnel systems, others patiently assemble credible disguises that let them simply walk out, and others still arrange for friends on the outside to conduct daring raids for them.
However, no matter how impressive a plan may be, there’s no guarantee that it will actually work. And when a lot of time and effort is spent on a failed plan, it’s pretty easy to feel hopeless.
Unfortunately, it seems that this hopelessness brought one Brazilian inmate to the deepest depths of despair.
Before he found himself in prison, 42-year-old Clauvino da Silva of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was known as “Shorty.”
According to The Guardian , he was a leading member of a criminal organization known as Comando Vermelho or “Red Command.”
The group is known for trafficking drugs and it was exactly this activity that led da Silva to run afoul of authorities.
As Buzzfeed News reported , his role in this business resulted in a 73-year sentence at Rio’s Gericinó prison.
He had previously escaped the prison in 2013 by infiltrating the sewer line, but he had a different idea in mind this time around.
Specifically, he assembled a disguise to look like his 19-year-old daughter, who had paid him a visit on Saturday.
As Buzzfeed News reported , the plan was to leave his daughter in the cell while he walked out the prison’s main door.
However, da Silva’s plan was thwarted when guards noticed him acting nervously.
As The Guardian reported , they then apprehended him and forced him to strip down on camera.
At first, he simply removed his wig after guards took off his glasses.
He then removed his jacket, which revealed that he was wearing a silicone mask under this doughnut T-shirt.
According to Buzzfeed News , it is at this point that da Silva admits to his true identity.
Nonetheless, he removes the rest of his disguise, which included a black bra.
Authorities now suspect that nine different visitors assisted da Silva in this escape attempt, including his actual daughter.
After the mask finally came off the video ended and was circulated online by the state secretary of prison administration.
Da Silva was then placed under solitary confinement as punishment for his attempted escape.
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Three days after he was put in isolation, officers found da Silva dead in his cell.
Officials said he appeared to have died by suicide. “The inmate appears to have hanged himself with a bed sheet,” an official statement said, according to Reuters .
Now, shortly after celebrating the foiling of his escape plan, authorities must investigate da Silva’s death.
The death of an inmate in solitary confinement is the latest black eye for a prison system reeling from a massive riot and gang war that saw at least 57 prisoners killed just a week earlier, and a series of riots in May that claimed the lives of more than 50 inmates as well.
Brazil’s overcrowded prisons might have one more inmate to deal with as well.
Da Silva’s daughter now faces charges for her role in the attempted escape. As Newsweek reported, she could see up to two years behind bars herself.
h/t: The Guardian , Buzzfeed News
