“God gave me courage,” says Brazilian woman beaten in Chile while fighting criminals

Maressa Crisley Nunes dos Santos from Paraná was discharged from the hospital where she had been hospitalized for seven days, in Santiago, capital of Chile, on the evening of last Tuesday (2).

This morning (3), the Brazilian spoke on the phone with CNN and recounted the moments of terror experienced during the robbery that occurred last week. “God gave me courage,” she says about having entered into a physical fight with the criminals.

Maressa was hospitalized in serious condition after being beaten during a robbery followed by an attempted rape. The victim suffered several fractures to her face. A friend who was with the Brazilian woman at the time of the crime suffered minor injuries.

Attempted rape

Maressa reported that a car with four men parked near the building where she and her friend were. Only one of them went up to the victims’ apartment immediately. “He gave the other two the coordinates to go up and one stayed in the car,” the victim described. The woman from Paraná did not specify CNN how the suspects managed to enter the building.

She denies the information published in the Brazilian and Chilean press, that the assailants are linked to a gang and that they were bothered by the Brazilian women acting as call girls.

According to her, the man was aggressive from the very beginning. He was armed and used the gun to hit Maressa’s friend with the butt of his gun. “He came up and lifted up my dress and kept saying ‘bellas chicas’ (beautiful women, in Spanish).” Maressa says she was afraid of being raped. “He kept putting his finger in me.”

Body fight

The woman from Paraná also said that the first of the assailants took her to the bathroom and hit her in the eyebrow area.

The young woman gathered courage and entered into a physical fight with the assailant, managing to snatch the gun from his hand, but she did not know how to use the equipment.

The thief then allegedly increased the intensity of the attacks.

Before fleeing, the criminals managed to steal the victims’ belongings, such as credit cards and an iPhone. Maressa has not yet been able to assess the damage, as the criminal asked for the device’s password and took the phone with the screen unlocked.

Return to Brazil

The victim’s sister, Larissa Nunes, traveled to Chile to accompany Maressa’s hospitalization. She arrived in the early hours of last Friday (28), when she made her first visit to the hospital.

The next morning, when calling a car through an app, Larissa had her cell phone stolen from her hand by a man riding a motorcycle.

Despite the difficulties, the family intends to return to Brazil this Wednesday.

In the country, the victim will need to undergo rhinoplasty. She suffered a fractured nose and an injury to her eye area. Maressa reported that the right side of her face is still numb today.

The family is organizing a virtual fundraiser to raise the money needed for transportation and medical procedures. The goal is to raise R$60,000.

Source: CNN Brasil

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