A married businessman has been accused of hiring a friend to murder his lover and incinerating her body in his steam boiler so he could avoid paying maintenance on their illegitimate child and avoid his wife finding out.

Also arrested is the child’s nanny accused of giving the pair information about her movements so they could work out the best way to kill her without getting caught, and she was promised custody of the daughter when she was dead.

Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office formally accused the trio of the death of Lilian de Oliveira, who went missing after landing in the municipality of Goiania following a trip to Colombia.

Investigators believe the crime was committed because the businessman was having an affair with the victim and the two had argued about their daughter’s child maintenance payments.

The judiciary accused Jucelino Pinto da Fonseca, his friend, Ronaldo Rodrigues Ferreira, and babysitter Cleonice de Fatima Ferreira of homicide.

The two men were also accused of abduction and ‘concurso de pessoas’ (the conscious and voluntary participation of two or more people in the same criminal offence).

The three have been released on bail, and Ronaldo’s lawyer has since stated that his client is confident he will be acquitted, as he claims to have only given the victim a lift in his car.

Lilian, 40, was killed when she went to meet her boyfriend shortly after landing in Brazil following a trip to Colombia on 13th February.

She had been in a longtime affair and even had a daughter with Jucelino, who was married and did not want his family to find out about his infidelity.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office: “Due to the couple’s disagreements about the expenses resulting from their extramarital relationship and child maintenance, Jucelino started to plan Lilian’s death, revealing his intentions to Cleonice, who had been hired to be a sort of nanny to the child, and who informed Jucelino of details of Lilian’s personal life.”

Investigators believe Cleonice wanted to keep the child as her own, and thus started to help Jucelino in planning the murder.

The businessman then hired Ronaldo, who owed him money, to commit the crime in exchange for waiving BRL 20,000 (GBP 2,645) worth of debt he had with him.

Investigators believe that Ronaldo even travelled to Colombia to kill Lilian, but was unsuccessful, and so returned to Brazil.

Cleonice then told Lilian that she would arrange for her to be picked up at the airport, sending Ronaldo to finish his mission.

Lilian was declared missing by her family after she failed to return home following the trip, and the police later concluded that she had been murdered.

Investigators concluded that Ronaldo went to the airport to pick up Lilian, who had not previously met him, and he drove her to Jucelino.

She was then beaten to death and her body was incinerated in Jucelino’s dairy processing steam boiler.

The Court of Justice will decide if the three will face trial by jury.