Abandoned: The Woman in the Decaying House, tells us the intriguing story of a woman who was on the run from the law, and whose enigmatic existence eventually turned into a source of curiosity for the local community. So let’s find out what happened in this particular case, who this mysterious old lady was, who was staying in a rundown mansion and if she had actually committed any crime.
What did Chico Felliti find in the abandoned house?
Chico Felliti, a journalist, learned about a woman living in an abandoned house in Higienópolis, Sao Paulo, and he felt intrigued about what she was up to. He set up outside her house with his camera, and he waited there for hours to check if what he’d heard was actually true. When, after several hours, he got a glimpse of her, he decided to approach her and ask her directly about what she was up to. That woman, Margarida Bonetti, responded to him and told him she would come out to meet him sometime. Chico waited outside her house, but the old woman never turned up. Later, she gave him a call and told him that she was going to come out in some time. Chicco didn’t understand if she was just stalling him or if she actually had any intention of coming out and talking to him. Whatever it might have been, Chico knew that there was something fishy about her. Once Chico’s podcast, Woman in the abandoned House, came out, the local law enforcement authorities got interested in the matter. There was no formal complaint made against the woman, but the police still wanted to make sure that there was no fugitive hiding in their neighborhood. Margarida made the police also wait outside her house, making it evidently clear that she didn’t want to let them in. The police officers finally came to the decision that they would have to break into her house, as they weren’t left with much of an option. Margarida’s house was literally unfit to live in. There was a stench coming from there, but obviously the police couldn’t press charges against her merely for living in unhygienic conditions. An engineer was called to check if there were any structural problems with the house, and if that could be used to force the woman out. But the engineer too didn’t raise any such concerns, and so ultimately the police had no option but to let her be.
Why was Margarida Bonetti hiding from the FBI?
Chico kept investigating the woman, and he got to know that the FBI was after her and she had been hiding in São Paulo for years. In the late nineties, Margarida and her husband, Rene, moved to Montgomery Village, near Gaithersburg, Maryland. Margarida didn’t want to relocate, but her husband, who happened to be an engineer, wanted to seize the opportunity to work there. The couple took a maid with them too, who had been staying with their family for many years. Hilda had come to work for the family when she was quite young, and in fact, she had seen Margarida growing up in front of her own eyes. Hilda was enslaved in that house, a fact that the authorities came to know after she decided to seek help and escape. Rene and Margarida made Hilda live in deplorable conditions. They made her stay in the basement, which was clearly not fit for inhabitation, they didn’t give her any remuneration, and often Margarida physically abused her. Rene and Margarida’s neighbors noticed that there was a woman working for them, and they suspected that there were some illegal activities happening there.
Hilda approached the neighbors, and they helped her understand that what was happening with her was not right. At times, victims are manipulated and brainwashed in such a manner that they accept their circumstances and do not raise their voices against it. The neighbors, especially a woman named Vicky, realized that the couple had abused Hilda for years. It was a miracle that the woman was still alive, considering the atrocities she had endured. Hilda got to know that she just needed $25 to go back to her native palace, and that gave her a lot of hope. But her passport had expired, and moreover, it was with Rene, and so she couldn’t really do anything about it.
The family generally went back to São Paulo for a couple of months at the end of the year. Vicky and the other neighbors decided to rescue Hilda during that time and find a way to press charges against Rene and Margarida. Hilda, at that time, was suffering from many problems, something that Rene and Margarida had very conveniently ignored. She had a tumor, and her stomach had swollen to the size of a pregnant woman. She had a bruise on her leg that, because it was untreated, had worsened with time. Moreover, she didn’t have any documents on her, which made her an illegal immigrant. There were a few good Samaritans, from Sister Manuela, who looked after Hilda in whatever way she could, to people like Vicky, the neighbor, who made sure that Hilda didn’t have to suffer any further. After Chico Felitti came to know about everything that Margarida had done in the US, he realized why she was on the run and why her name was on the FBI wanted list.
Where Are Margarida And Rene Now?
Margarida came from royal lineage: her father, Geraldo de Azevedo, was a surgeon, and she had inherited an immense amount of wealth from him. Her family, especially her mother, Lourdes de Azevedo, had always treated Hilda very abusively. Hilda had been with the family since she was a young girl, and she didn’t know how she would earn her livelihood if she were fired from her job. The Azevedos took advantage of her helplessness. Margarida, too, once she reached Montgomery Village, used to take her frustration out on her. In fact, Hilda claimed that Margarida even stole her money that she had gotten from the neighbors, just so that she wasn’t able to escape from their house. Margarida put a lock on the fridge just to make sure that Hilda didn’t take food from there. Once the FBI got to know about Hilda’s situation, they decided to press charges. They wanted to accuse the couple of enslaving Hilda, but the evidence wasn’t enough to prove that. They had to look for another route, and so they charged Margarida and Rene with trafficking an illegal immigrant and not paying her the basic minimum wage. The day the trial started, Margarida left for São Paulo, never to return again. She knew that had she stayed in the US, just like her husband, she would have been sentenced to prison. She was well aware of how the statute of limitations worked. She knew that if she was able to hide from the authorities for a considerable period of time, then she wouldn’t be tried in the US and even in Higienópolis. And that is exactly what happened. Though Rene was sentenced to 6 years in prison, Margarida was never charged with any crime. She chose not to be a part of the Amazon Prime documentary, but she stated in the telephonic interview she gave Chico that Hilda was lying and that she never treated her in the way she claimed.
Even after inflicting decades of abuse, Margarida lives in her mansion, without the fear of being charged, while her husband stays in the US. I don’t think Margarida even feels the guilt of making Hilda go through such abuse. And I dare say it out loud, then I don’t think Margarida would have done anything differently, if given an option.
