Pregnant woman, 24, is murdered and her unborn child cut out of her womb after being 'lured to a fake baby shower by a friend who was obsessed with stealing a child'

A young pregnant woman was found dead with her unborn child cut out of her womb after being lured to a fake baby shower by a friend who had become obsessed with stealing a child.  

The woman, who has been identified locally as Flavia Godinho Mafra, 24, was 36 weeks pregnant when she was murdered in the town of Canelinha, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

The partner of her school friend admitted using a brick to kill her after luring her to the murder scene on the pretence of a baby shower, local media reported. 

The friend confessed to having become obsessed with stealing a child after she had a miscarriage earlier this year, police said. 

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Brazilian woman Flavia Godinho Mafra, 24, is pictured in an undated photograph. Mafra, who was 36 weeks pregnant, was brutally murdered by an old school friend who had become obsessed with stealing a baby after having a miscarriage herself. She removed the baby from the mother's body using a blade

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Mafra poses with her husband in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Mafra was 36 weeks pregnant at the time of the murder. It's unknown whether the baby was removed while she was still alive 

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Pictured: The knife used in the horrific crime in Brazil. Police said Mafra's cause of death was a sharp cut to the abdomen and wounds sustained from being hit with a brick 

The detective responsible for the case, Paulo Alexandre Freyesleben e Silva, confirmed that the cause of death of the 24-year-old victim was a sharp cut to the abdomen and wounds from a brick, according to national newspaper G1. 

The body was reportedly found by the victim's husband and mother at around 9am on Friday.

It had been dumped in an abandoned pottery yard in the Galera neighbourhood.. The baby was missing.

Police later found it had been taken to the hospital by the suspect and her husband, who were both arrested.

According to the police investigation, the arrested woman, who was an old school friend of the victim, told the police officer she had lost a child due to a miscarriage in January and had become obsessed with stealing a child.

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Mafra's body had been dumped in an abandoned pottery yard in the Galera neighbourhood of Canelinha, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina

According to NSC Total, the baby girl remains in the Children's Hospital of Florianopolis, where she has been given antibiotics and pain medication for the injuries sustained when she was ripped from her mother's belly, but is otherwise in good general health.

The autopsy will confirm if the baby was removed with the pregnant woman alive or if she was already dead.

Flavia, who studied pedagogy and worked as a substitute teacher, was buried in the Municipal Cemetery of Canelinha after a brief ceremony.