Messages between gay Portuguese
journalist Carlos Castro and his confessed killer, Renato Seabra,
suggest romance between the men.
Seabra was arraigned Friday in New York
on a murder charge via a video link from Bellevue Hospital.
The 21-year-old fashion model did not
enter a plea and remained quiet as prosecutors accused him of
bludgeoning to death and castrating the 65-year-old Castro on January
7 in the Inter-Continental New York Times Square Hotel room the pair
were sharing.
Seabra earned fame last year on the
Portuguese reality talent contest A Procura Do Sonho, or
Pursuit of a Dream. He didn't win the contest but was signed
to a modeling contract.
Castro had written articles and books
about fashion and was a vocal gay rights advocate.
Seabra allegedly told investigators
that he screamed at Castro “I'm not gay anymore!” while he
kicked, punched and ultimately mutilated his lover with a wine
corkscrew.
And Seabra's mother Odilia Pereirinha
told Portugal's TVIndependente television network that her son “was
not Carlos Castro's lover.”
Seabra “never hid his sexuality: that
he is heterosexual,” she said, the AP reported.
But in Facebook messages that surfaced
on Friday on the social network, Seabra flatters Castro and sends him
a “big kiss.”
In their first conversation, dated
October 9, Castro messages to Seabra, “Hello Renato thanks and a
hug.”
In other conversations, Renato asks the
journalist for advice on the fashion world.
In an October 16 exchange, Castro calls
Seabra “querido,” a form of endearment that could suggest more
than friendship.
Seabra replies, “As I said I think
about you as well … I want to be with you! A big kiss.”