American Murdered in Sao Paulo Brothel "by a pimp "

SAO PAULO – A 50-year-old American was murdered and his body buried alongside a highway, apparently as a settling of scores linked to prostitution in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazilian police said Friday.

U.S. citizen David Benjamin Sommer went missing last Jan. 11 in the Liberdade neighborhood of downtown Sao Paulo and a pimp, 28, was arrested as a suspect in the case, the daily Globo said.

According to police, who identified the U.S. citizen as a company executive, was a regular at a brothel in the city of Sao Paulo and seems to have had an argument with a prostitute, apparently a girlfriend of the pimp.

The same sources said that the American, who had frequent relations with the brothel’s prostitutes, was beaten up in a room by the killer and given two injections of a sleep-inducing drug.

The accused, according to investigators, rented a commercial refrigerator, stuffed Sommer’s body inside it and then took it in a van to Inmigrantes Highway in Greater Sao Paulo, where he buried it.

Dogs of the Sao Paulo police helped track the American to the brothel, after which, according to the Homicide Division, the accused confessed where he buried the victim, who had lived in Brazil for nine years