BRENTWOOD, CA - DECEMBER 14: Lee Harvey Oswald's original pine coffin, which is being auctioned at Nate D. Sanders' is seen at Nate D. Sanders' on December 14, 2010 in Brentwood, California. The auction ends Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5 pm Pacific Standard Time. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images) (2010 Getty Images)
Two Brazilian brothers were arrested after they allegedly buried their father alive.
The brothers allegedly fed sleeping pills to their father, an Afro-Brazilian religious leader, and then buried him. The father ended up dying underground of asphyxiation, authorities said.
Antonio Valente Filho, chief of police of Timon, in Maranhão state, told Globo TV's G1 website that the brothers, ages 18 and 21, confessed this week to planning the murder. They told police their father was a violent man who drank too much and didn't accept their homosexuality, said Filho.
The chief said police are investigating whether the victim's role as head of a local Afro-Brazilian religious congregation may have been a motivation for the killing.
"We believe they might have been fighting for control of the ceremonial grounds," Valente Filho said. "We don't think this was just over their fights regarding the sons' sexual orientation."
He told G1 that after the neighbor told others about the grave they dug together, the brothers confessed to an uncle, who called police.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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