Rome, Dec 4 (IANS/AKI) Italian police are investigating a sex worker and colleague of the Brazilian transsexual ‘Brenda’, who was found dead last month in Rome. Brenda was at the centre of a major sex, drugs and extortion scandal after being linked to former Lazio regional governor Piero Marrazzo.
She claimed to have video taped him in the bath during one of their sexual encounters.

Police said they considered Brazilian transsexual ‘Barbara’ the prime suspect in Brenda’s death who authorities said died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at her flat in northern Rome Nov 19.

Brenda made headlines after allegedly having more than one sexual encounter with Marrazzo.

Marrazzo resigned from his post in October as the media published details of the emerging scandal.

After questioning Barbara earlier this week, police said they had now seized some of her clothes.

The items of clothing confiscated by police include an overcoat that 42-year-old Barbara was allegedly wearing on the night of Brenda’s death.

Police forensic scientists are analysing the coat for traces of smoke and ash and for traces of blood and body fluids.

The autopsy carried out on Brenda showed she received cuts to her arms up to 36 hours before she died, possibly during a fight.

Barbara told police interrogators that on the night of Nov 19 she returned around 1.30 a.m. to her apartment in a street near via Gradoli, where Brenda was found dead.

A third Brasilian transsexual, Claudia, 24, claims that she took a taxi with Barbara at around 3.30 a.m., at which time police suspect the fire had already broken out at Brenda’s apartment.

Claudia was also being questioned by police this week.

After Brenda’s death, Barbara acted as a self-styled spokesperson for Rome’s transsexual prostitute community and told media she and her fellow sex-workers believed Brenda had been murdered.

“We are all at risk. We live in fear,” Barbara told reporters, adding that police were not protecting them.

–IANS/AKI

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