The teenage daughter of Elize Matsunaga, the Brazilian woman convicted of murdering and dismembering her husband in 2012, has been authorised by a São Paulo court to travel abroad during school holidays, as renewed global attention on the case is driven by a recent Netflix dramatisation. According to local court documents, Helena—now 16 and in the sole custody of her paternal grandparents—was permitted to visit London in late June and Punta Cana in late July, accompanied respectively by a pedagogue and her grandmother.

The killing of Marcos Kitano Matsunaga, an heir to the Yoki food empire, stunned Brazil more than a decade ago. Elize Matsunaga confessed to shooting her husband during a confrontation over his infidelities, then dismembering his body and disposing of the remains in a forested area outside São Paulo. She was sentenced in 2016 to 16 years and three months for homicide and concealment of a corpse, following a trial that weighed both her admission and the brutal nature of the crime. Released on parole in 2022 after serving ten years, she remains subject to strict conditions, including a judicial prohibition on contacting or approaching her daughter, a restriction that has never been relaxed.

Helena was one year old at the time of the murder and has been raised entirely by her paternal grandparents, Mitsuo and Misako Matsunaga, in an affluent neighbourhood of western São Paulo. Brazilian media report that the family has consistently shielded her from publicity and that she is aware of the facts surrounding her parents. The grandfather has publicly stated he would not oppose a reunion when she reaches adulthood, but indicated he wishes to avoid pressuring her while she is still an adolescent. Reports quoting the journalist Ullisses Campbell suggest Helena expressed a desire at age 14 to meet her biological mother, though no meeting ever materialised. The Netflix film, “Elize: Shadows of a Woman”, ends by noting that mother and daughter have never been reunited, not even through photographs.

The legal framework governing the case remains unambiguous. The family court in Pinheiros, São Paulo, maintains the ban on maternal contact as part of the parole conditions, and any inheritance from Marcos Matsunaga passed solely to Helena after Elize was declared legally unworthy due to the homicide. While the convicted mother retains rights to half the marital assets—reportedly around 900,000 reais—the daughter’s daily life and international travel are overseen exclusively by the paternal side. The court’s recent travel authorisation confirms the grandparents’ continuing legal authority, and no change to the prohibition on contact is anticipated before Helena reaches the age of majority.