Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime

What Is the Series About?

Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime is a four-part Netflix docuseries about one of the most sensational criminal cases in modern Brazilian history: the 2012 murder and dismemberment of São Paulo businessman Marcos Kitano Matsunaga by his wife, Elize Matsunaga. The series premiered on 8 July 2021 and is notable for a single, extraordinary journalistic achievement — it features Elize Matsunaga's first on-camera interview since the crime, giving audiences direct access to the convicted killer's own account of what happened and why.

Netflix describes the case as one that "shocked Brazil," and the docuseries was designed to examine the crime, the investigation, the trial, and the human story beneath the tabloid headlines that consumed the country for years.

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The Case

On the night of 19 May 2012, Elize Matsunaga shot and killed her husband, Marcos Kitano Matsunaga, inside their apartment in São Paulo. She then dismembered his body and disposed of the remains outside the city, in a wooded roadside area. According to reporting on the case, Elize later confessed to both the shooting and the dismemberment.

The Victim

Marcos Kitano Matsunaga was a wealthy businessman and company director with ties to the Yoki food company family — one of Brazil's most recognizable consumer brands. His prominence made his disappearance, and the subsequent discovery of his dismembered remains, an immediate national news story.

The Perpetrator

Elize Matsunaga was a former nurse who had married into the Matsunaga family. The day after the killing, she filed a missing-person report for Marcos with São Paulo police — a move that launched the very investigation that would expose her role in the crime. Within approximately a week, Marcos's dismembered body was discovered outside São Paulo, and the investigation quickly focused on Elize.

She confessed to shooting Marcos and to dismembering his corpse. Her confession and cooperation with investigators would later factor into sentencing calculations.

Trial and Sentencing

Elize stood trial in May 2016. On 5 December 2016, a jury returned a guilty verdict on charges of homicide and the destruction and concealment of a corpse. Her original sentence was 19 years, 11 months and 1 day. That sentence was subsequently reduced to 16 years and 3 months following recalculations that took into account her confession and work performed while incarcerated.

It should be noted that reporting on the precise legal characterisation of the verdict contains some ambiguity — at least one source references a jury finding related to self-defence, while the majority of reporting consistently describes the outcome as a murder conviction carrying a substantial prison term. What is not in dispute is that Elize Matsunaga was sentenced to prison for both the killing and the corpse-related charges.

As of the most recent reporting, Elize remains incarcerated at Tremembé Women's Penitentiary in São Paulo state, with her projected release date set for 2035.

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Production

The series consists of four episodes and was released globally on Netflix on 8 July 2021 (IMDb ID: tt14856998). The director of the series has not been confirmed in available sources at the time of publication.

The production's central achievement is securing Elize Matsunaga's participation. Speaking from prison, she gives her account of the relationship, the events of 19 May 2012, and the aftermath — marking the first time she had spoken publicly since the crime. The series also draws on court documents, investigative reporting, and interviews with other figures connected to the case, constructing a narrative that moves between the crime itself, the investigation, and the trial.

The decision to centre the documentary substantially around Elize's own testimony was a deliberate editorial choice that shaped both the series' impact and the controversy that followed its release.

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Reception

Critical and audience reception was shaped heavily by the novelty of Elize Matsunaga's direct participation. Reviews consistently characterised the series as a compelling, if unsettling, examination of one of Brazil's most-discussed criminal cases. The graphic nature of the crime — particularly the dismemberment — and the unusual degree of access to the convicted perpetrator made the series a significant talking point on social media and in entertainment press upon release.

A recurring point of debate among viewers and commentators was the tension between the documentary's empathetic framing of Elize's perspective and the long-standing public perception of the case as a cold-blooded, premeditated killing. Critics of the series argued that centring Elize's voice risked producing a sympathetic platform for a convicted murderer; supporters contended that giving the perpetrator space to speak is a legitimate and revealing documentary approach. This controversy has continued to follow the series in discussions about true-crime ethics more broadly.

The series is listed on Common Sense Media and Rotten Tomatoes, though aggregate critical scores were not available for verification at the time of publication. IMDb lists the series under ID tt14856998.

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The Case Today

Elize Matsunaga remains imprisoned at Tremembé Women's Penitentiary in São Paulo. Her sentence, originally nearly twenty years, was reduced to 16 years and 3 months — a reduction tied both to her original confession and to work completed during her incarceration. Her projected release date remains 2035.

The case has continued to generate media interest in Brazil well beyond the Netflix series. In 2026, a dramatised film adaptation — Elize: Shadows of a Woman — was reported to be in development, indicating that the story retains significant cultural salience more than a decade after the crime. The Matsunaga case remains one of the most-discussed true-crime stories in Brazilian popular culture, a status that the Netflix docuseries both reflected and, for international audiences, substantially amplified.