A killer who confessed to butchering his girlfriend and her 23-month-old daughter with scissors and a screwdriver has told police he did it over texts from her ex.

Mum Iara Vicente da Silva, 28, and baby Hillary were found dead in the family flat in Maceio, in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, after their killer Ivaldo dos Santos Felizardo fled.

The apartment was like a slaughterhouse with blood spurts over the walls and frenzied multiple stab wounds in the victim's mutilated bodies.

Mum Iara was found dead in the bedroom with at least eight stab and slash wounds to her neck and with cuts to her hand showing she had fought for her life before she was overwhelmed.

Defenceless Hilary was found dead with her throat cut on a sofa in the sitting room.

Police say their killer Felizardo had calmly washed his hands and packed a bag before he fled the carnage in the early hours of 25th May.

In a grim twist Felizardo is said to have phoned Hillary's father before he left saying: "I have your dead child in my arms."

The gruesome murder scene was discovered by lara's sister Mayanne Pereira who had been alerted by worried neighbours who had heard screams coming from the apartment.

Forensic officers later took two bloodstained knives, a pair of scissors and a screwdriver from the apartment.

Police later arrested 28-year-old Felizardo who admitted the killings but claimed he could remember little about the macabre bloodbath.

He told police he flew into a frenzy when he read messages from one of Iara's exes on her WhatsApp.

He told police: "I'm not here to lie, I'll admit it.

"We were drinking and using drugs. At some time I remember that she was messaging someone.

"I caught some of her exchange with the ex."

The killer continued: "All I remember us that I pushed her. Then I saw that ugly thing, blood. And my right hand was inside her mouth."

Civil Police say Felizardo, who had been living with Iara for four months, already has a criminal record for domestic violence.

He is being held in custody awaiting formal charges and his first court appearance.

(MJ Leidig/newsX)