Elize: Shadows of a Woman is climbing the Netflix chart with viewers fixated on the tragic true story.
Elize: Shadows of a Woman is on Netflix and the crime drama film is a retelling of a harrowing murder case from 2012.
The film tells the story of Elize Matsunaga, who shocked the whole of Brazil after shooting and dismembering her husband.
Matsunaga met her husband Marcos, a wealthy business mogul, through an escort service and while their lives as a married couple seemed perfect on the outside, there was a lot of uncertainty behind closed doors.
Matsunaga, a trained nurse, was suspicious of her husband’s loyalty and hired a private investigator to look into her concerns about infidelity. After confronting him about an alleged affair, she shot Marcos, before dismembering his body and discarding the parts in a wooded area – but what happened to her?
Elize: Shadows of a Woman is a crime drama retelling the true story
In 2016 Matsunaga, who had a daughter with Marcos, was convicted of the murder. She had initially filed a missing person report, but confessed to the killing a few weeks later.
She was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison, which was reduced to 16 years in 2019. In 2026, Matsunaga is no longer in prison, as she has been on parole since 2022.
Being on parole means a person is released from prison before finishing their full sentence, and they serve the rest of their time in the community under strict supervision. It is a conditional release based on the person’s behaviour and whether they stick to the rules of their parole agreement.
Matsunaga met her husband Marcos through an escort service
While Matsunaga may be free from the confinements of a prison cell, she faces the heartbreaking reality of losing contact with her family.
The crime drama states the Matsunaga family had planned to disassociate themselves from her and the case, by “removing Elize’s surname”.
While Matsunaga was desperate to see her daughter again, she has not been in contact with her since, despite writing letters to her begging for her forgiveness.
Marco’s parents have full custody of her daughter, who was only an infant when the murder happened and is now a teenager.
In 2021, Matsunaga was interviewed for the first time for the documentary Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime.
“I still can’t tell what kind of emotion made me pull that trigger,” she confessed.
Elize: Shadows of a Woman is on Netflix
