A teenage couple who killed and then butchered the body of a 15-year-old girl in a gruesome love triangle have been seized by police.
The 17-year-old boy and his girlfriend, aged 14, have confessed to hacking their victim to death and throwing her body parts into a lake in Cornelio Procopi, in the Brazilian state of Parana.
In a grim twist to fool police, reports local media, they wrote 'PCC' on one of her severed limbs, the initials of Brazil's biggest drug gang, the Primeiro Comando da Capital.
Picture shows Nicolly Fernanda Pogere, undated. The 14-year-old was found dead in Hortolandia, Brazil, on Jul.18, 2025. Note: Private photo taken from social media. (Newsflash/NX)
Victim Nicolly Fernanda Pogere and one of her killers had been school sweethearts before her family moved more than 300 miles away to Mococa.
But when she returned on a family visit to her grandfather, reports local media, she tried to rekindle the romance which triggered a horrific plot to get rid of her.
Nicolly was found by passersby when her body parts began floating to the surface of the lake on 18th July, six days after she went missing.
Both her arms and legs had been cut off and she had been stabbed repeatedly in her stomach.
Picture shows Nicolly Fernanda Pogere, her mother Priscila Magrin and an unnamed child, undated. The 14-year-old was found dead in Hortolandia, Brazil, on Jul.18, 2025. Note: Private photo taken from social media. (Newsflash/NX)
Police believe she had been finished off with a blow to her head so powerful it smashed her skull.
Local media reports say her body had been wrapped in a sheet and weighed down with rocks.
Nicolly's former boyfriend and his 14-year-old new girlfriend, named only as Henrique and Evelyn, were arrested on 20th July and reportedly confessed to the gruesome killing.
Blood was found at her ex's home and his father reportedly confirmed that the sheet had come from his house.
Police chief Jose Regino Melo Lages Filho from the city's 2nd Hortolandia District said that the PCC writing had been a bid to stage Nicolly's death as a gang execution.
Picture shows Nicolly Fernanda Pogere with an unnamed woman, undated. The 14-year-old was found dead in Hortolandia, Brazil, on Jul.18, 2025. Note: Private photo taken from social media. (Newsflash/NX)
He explained: "It was a deliberate attempt to disguise the true motive for the crime by simulating a possible connection to a criminal organisation."
It later emerged that Nicolly had been staying at her ex's home for two days but was due to return to her grandfather's house in the city on 14th July.
But when she did not show, her worried family was able to contact her ex, who claimed that she had disappeared and never stayed overnight with him.
The police investigation is ongoing.
(Joseph Golder / newsX)