By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The Portuguese model accused in the gruesome murder and mutilation of a well-known journalist and gay rights advocate told police he did it to rid his victim of "homosexual demons," the New York Daily News reported.
"I'm not gay anymore!" accused killer Renato Seabra, 21, added during an interview with investigators, according to the New York Post. "[I did it] to get rid of demons, to get rid of the virus."
Seabra’s alleged victim, Portuguese journalist and gay rights activist Carlos Castro, was found dead, beaten and castrated, on the floor of a guestroom at Midtown’s InterContinental hotel last Friday.
Seabra told investigators that he performed the castration with a wine corkscrew, according to police sources. He was charged with second-degree murder and is awaiting arraignment.
The male model and finalist on the Portuguese version of "America’s Next Top Model" was arrested early Saturday and charged with second-degree murder, according to police. He was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation and was questioned at Bellevue Hospital Center Monday morning, the NYPD said.
Friends said Seabra and Castro, 65, had been dating since October and flew to New York for vacation on Dec. 29, according to reports. But, sometime into their stay at Midtown’s InterContinental hotel, Castro began to fear his young companion, the friends said.
Monica Pires, a friend of the deceased, said Castro told her during a phone call on the day of his death that he would be returning to Portugal early because Seabra was "acting crazy," according to the reports.
Worried, Pires traveled to the hotel to check up on her friend, according to reports. When she arrived, she confronted Seabra as he left the lobby in a suit and purple tie. She then went upstairs, accompanied by hotel staff, and discovered Castro’s mutilated body.
Police immediately began to search for Seabra, and he was eventually spotted by a nurse at Roosevelt Hospital, seeking treatment for a slit wrists, reports said.
In an interview with a Portuguese newspaper during Seabra’s time on the reality TV show, the male model described himself as shy and religious, the Daily News said.
His mother, Odilia Pereirinha, recently defended her son to a Portuguese TV station, insisting that her son had not committed the crime and was not homosexual, according to the News.
