SÃO PAULO — The body of 18-year-old João Antônio Donati was found on Wednesday on wasteland in Inhumas, a town near the Brazilian city of Goiânia, Goiás state.
According to his family, Donati – who was openly gay – had gone out on Tuesday evening to a bar with friends and never returned home.
Less than a day later, he was found dead with a badly beaten face, and plastic and paper stuffed in his mouth, which caused his death by asphyxia, according to an initial autopsy.
Local police say they are not ruling out homophobia as the cause of the murder, but denied rumours that the teenager’s body was found with a note with a homophobic message.
Ben Tavener 