At the outset of Pacheco\u2019s murder trial at the Central Criminal Court<\/a> in Cork, prosecuting lawyer Bernard Conlon SC painted in broad strokes how their relationship fell apart, re-enacting their conversations for the jury.<\/p>\n Bruna had recorded some of their conversations on her phone. Det Sgt Michael O\u2019Halloran read Pacheco\u2019s angry accusations; prosecution lawyer Imelda Kelly BL read Bruna\u2019s patient replies.<\/p>\n The relationship began eight years earlier in Formiga, a city of about 70,000 people in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil \u2013 about eight hours from Rio de Janeiro by road. Bruna grew up there with her older sisters Fernanda and Izabel, and their parents, Tadeu Jose Fonseca, a milkman, and his wife Marin dos Reis Palhares Fonseca.<\/p>\n Bruna attended school locally before obtaining a degree in library studies at the local university, Formiga Centro Universitario. Although her family knew the Pachecos, it wasn\u2019t until June 2017, when she was 23, that she met Pacheco on Instagram<\/a>. They began dating later that year.<\/p>\n In mid-2019, they moved in together in S\u00e3o Paulo when Bruna secured a job working in the library at Universidade de Franca in the Brazilian city. Pacheco had obtained his engineering degree in the same university and continued to live there after graduation.<\/p>\n The couple returned to Formiga when the Covid-19<\/a> pandemic struck but later moved back to S\u00e3o Paulo only to break up in late 2021.<\/p>\n By the time they got back together in July 2022, Bruna had decided to move to Ireland. She arrived in Cork on September 23rd, 2022 with her niece Maria Luiza Fonseca where they were welcomed by her cousin, Marcela Fonseca.<\/p>\n Bruna had told Pacheco that he could join her in Ireland. Within days of his arriving in Cork on November 18th 2022, after moving into the apartment on Watercourse Road she shared with Maria Luiza, they had split up again.<\/p>\n That break-up triggered six weeks of what amounted to an emotional besiegement of Bruna by her former boyfriend.<\/p>\n At the trial, Sgt Brian Barron outlined how garda\u00ed found almost 2,000 text messages from Pacheco to her and more than 1,500 replies from her from the date of his arrival in Cork on November 18th to her death at his hands on January 1st, 2023.<\/p>\n Days after Pacheco\u2019s sentencing, Marcela reflects on his obsession with her cousin as evidenced by the text messages between them, his attempts to exploit her caring nature and his refusal to accept their relationship was over.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like Fernanda [Bruna\u2019s sister] said after the trial: Bruna was the rainbow between the showers; she had just such a good heart, always putting others first,\u201d Marcela tells The Irish Times.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd even after she broke up with Miller, she cared for him and was concerned for him especially when [he] threatened to kill himself.\u201d<\/p>\n She says Bruna helped Pacheco find an apartment and a job \u2013 and obtain a PPS work number and bank account.<\/p>\n \u201cI would offer to do something for him but no; it was \u2018Bruna, Bruna, Bruna\u2019 \u2013 always Bruna \u2013 he was obsessed with her and could not accept that she did not want to be with him any more and was trying to make her feel guilty over that,\u201d says Marcela.<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s text messages \u2013 read into court testimony \u2013 showed how he tried to exploit Bruna\u2019s concern for him to persuade her to reverse her decision to end their relationship.<\/p>\n![\"Miller](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AG7QRFI5EVBPDG5AF6UL7RNZ6A.png\")
Miller Pacheco in April 2018 <\/p>\n![\"Bruna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CF7XSIXAJJDSRHPYMSNRV7LEAQ.jpg\")
Bruna Fonseca’s niece Maria Fonseca, friend Juliana Souza and cousin Marcela Fonseca at a vigil in memory of Bruna in Cork in January 2023. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney\/Provision <\/p>\n
![\"Bruna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769854089_200_LJXYQOQ5SZBKXB22DYXYP7F4XY.jpg\")
Bruna Fonseca <\/p>\n