NEW YORK— A model and former Portuguese reality show contestant on Sunday confessed to brutally murdering his male lover, a well-known Portuguese television journalist, by castrating and bludgeoning him in a New York City hotel room on Friday.
Carlos Castro, 65, and his younger boyfriend, the model Renato Seabra, had traveled to New York in late December to vacation in the city. According to the Associated Press, the men attended some Broadway shows and engaged in other typical tourist activity. A friend of the couple said the couple appeared to be “a little bit upset with each other, for jealousy reasons,” but displayed no bizarre behavior that would suggest impeding violence.
The circumstances leading up to Castro’s death remain unclear, but after Seabra emerged in the lobby of the InterContinental New York Times Square Hotel “acting strangely,” according to the AP, security guards entered the couple’s room and discovered Castro’s castrated body, which also suffered serious head trauma.
According to the New York Post, Seabra screamed at Castro, “I’m not gay anymore!” before attacking him. He said his motivation was “to get rid of demons and a virus,” the meaning of which remains unclear but apparently does not relate to HIV or AIDS.