A True Story that Touched a World
Fred Ponce, PhD
Author
Dr. Fred Ponce, PhD. is a retired Miami, FL homicide investigator from the United States who possess a Doctorate in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Behavioral Science and a Master’s in Forensic Psychology. He is retired from the Miami Police Department and now with over thirty years of experience, Dr. Ponce consults on homicide cases and is the owner of Criminal Investigations Training Group, CITGROUP, who trains law enforcement investigators from around the world.
Beatriz: Walking for Justice
A mother's Journey in the hunt for her daughter's killer
A True Story
A seven-year-old girl was stabbed 42 times inside her own school. The police buried the case. Her mother refused to let them bury the truth.
On December 10, 2015, Beatriz Angélica Mota was murdered inside the Nossa Maria Auxiliadora, a private school in Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil. She was seven years old. What should have been a swift pursuit of justice became a labyrinth of institutional failure, corruption, and betrayal. The police investigation was riddled with procedural violations—contaminated crime scenes, lost evidence, coerced witnesses, and a system more interested in closing a file than finding a killer.
Beatriz’s mother, Lucinha Mota, refused to accept the silence. While a nation watched and then forgot, Lucinha kept walking—through courtrooms, police stations, legislative chambers, and the halls of power in Pernambuco—demanding answers that no one in authority wanted to give. She marched. She spoke. She refused to stop.
The case drew the attention of US homicide investigator Dr. Freddy Ponce, who immersed himself in the investigation, reviewing evidence, identifying critical failures, and mentoring Lucinha—transforming a grieving mother into a relentless homicide hunter who understood the mechanics of murder investigation as well as those paid to conduct one.
Beatriz: Walking for Justice tells this story in harsh, unvarnished detail. It documents the corruption that delayed justice, the depression and spiritual crisis that nearly consumed Lucinha, and the extraordinary resilience that kept her fighting for more than seven years. It is a story about death, pain, and the failure of institutions, but it is also about the unyielding power of a mother’s love, the courage to confront a broken system, and the belief that one voice, loud enough and persistent enough, can force the truth into the light.