The identical twin of a pretty medical student who was shot dead by a convicted killer says her sister had agreed to meet him after he told her there was work in his area, which she needed to fund her studies after they were interrupted by lockdown.

Gabriela Marcia dos Santos Meirelles, 20, studied in Uruguay and had moved to the Brazilian municipality of Uberlandia last month to find work to pay for her studies after her classes moved online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

She was killed by a motorcycle taxi driver she had met online with a shot to the head and buried in his garden next to his dog kennel in the nearby municipality of Araguari on 10th April.

Her twin sister, Itamara, told G1: “She was chasing her dreams, always positive, thinking about giving her best for her family and making my mum proud with her medicine diploma.”

Itamara revealed her sister had been convinced by the killer, 43-year-old Jose Hamilton de Jesus, to move to Uberlandia, where he said work was easy to come by.

Gabriela and Jose eventually met in person on two occasions and he picked her up from her house on their third meeting hours before committing the crime.

As he was taking her to Araguari, Gabriela sent a series of messages to a friend telling her she was scared, as Jose was behaving strangely, talking about men who had killed women.

She shared her location with her friend and she asked her to call her an hour later to check up on her. Her friend followed her instructions, but her call went unanswered.

According to the police, Jose’s neighbours reported hearing a noise resembling a gunshot in the early hours of 10th April.

Officers who turned up at the empty house found a dirt-covered hoe and shovel and noticed the soil in the garden had been disturbed.

The victim’s body was found buried in a shallow grave close to a dog kennel in the garden later that day.

The police later located the suspect at another house as he was preparing to flee, and he fired on officers as they arrived at the scene and tried to arrest him.

The officers then returned fire, fatally injuring him, and paramedics were called to the scene but were unable to revive him.

The police found two revolvers, 38 units of ammunition, pocket knives and BRL 7,000 (GBP 902) in cash in the house at which he was shot.

According to the police, the suspect had served 12 years in prison for killing his wife and burying her body beneath their bed in Araguari in 2006.

Gabriela was buried in her hometown of Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, on the afternoon of 13th April.

Her sister told G1: “We were very close and many who knew the two of us saw that. One of us always supported the other in everything, and she always helped me with everything she could and everything she couldn’t, too.”