Where Helena Matsunaga Stands Today, and Whether a Reunion With Her Mother Elize Is Still Possible

The release of ‘Elize: Shadows of a Woman’ on Netflix has pulled a notorious Brazilian true crime case back into public conversation, but this time the focus has shifted away from the killing itself. Viewers are asking about the one person at the center of the story who never asked to be part of it, Helena, the daughter Elize Matsunaga had with her husband Marcos Kitano Matsunaga.

Helena was only a toddler when her father was killed in 2012, and she has spent the years since growing up almost entirely outside public view. With the film reigniting interest in the case, many are now wondering what her life looks like today and whether she and her mother could ever be in the same room again.

Helena Matsunaga Today

Helena was just a year old when her mother killed and dismembered her father inside their São Paulo apartment in 2012. Custody passed to her paternal grandparents, Mitsuo and Misako Matsunaga, in the aftermath of the crime, and they have raised her ever since away from cameras and headlines.

She is now 16 years old and, according to multiple reports, has been kept almost entirely removed from the media attention that continues to follow her mother’s case living a life completely removed from media exposure, a deliberate choice by the family given how closely her parents story has been dissected in books, documentaries and now a scripted film. Her grandparents reportedly went so far as to try removing Elize’s surname from her birth certificate entirely.

Family accounts indicate Mitsuo Matsunaga has addressed her situation only occasionally, and always with the same message, that any decision about contact with her mother belongs to Helena alone once she becomes an adult. He has said that once she turns 18, she can do what she wants with her life, and that it is better to wait until she is of legal age rather than push her to take a position as a teenager.

One detail that has drawn particular attention is that Helena reportedly expressed, at age 14, a wish to see her mother again, though that meeting never took place.

Custody of Helena and the Court’s No-Contact Order

The custody outcome was not a foregone conclusion. Elize herself had been raised by her grandmother and aunt, and she reportedly hoped they might raise Helena in her absence, but the court instead granted full guardianship to Marcos’s parents. That decision placed Helena in an upscale neighborhood in western São Paulo, far removed from her mother’s side of the family.

Alongside the custody ruling, Brazilian courts imposed a strict no-contact order barring Elize from seeing or communicating with her daughter. That restriction has remained in place for well over a decade and did not change even after Elize’s legal status shifted.

Elize was sentenced to roughly 16 years and three months following her confession, but she was released on parole after serving about ten years, in 2022. Even with that parole, the no-contact condition stayed intact, and she has honored it, reportedly not attempting to reach her daughter directly since her release.

Elize Matsunaga’s Letters and Attempts to Reach Her Daughter

Unable to see or speak with Helena, Elize has apparently tried other, more indirect ways of keeping some form of connection alive. She reportedly wrote letters to her daughter and sewed items for her while incarcerated, hoping the gestures might eventually be understood once Helena was older.

She also reportedly wrote an autobiography behind bars, titled ‘Picnic in Hell,’ which she has said she intends to hand to Helena someday so her daughter can hear her side of the story directly. Because direct contact was forbidden, she has also reportedly resorted to holding up handwritten signs during public moments, hoping the messages would somehow make their way back to her daughter.

Her decision to participate in Netflix’s 2021 documentary, ‘Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon a Crime,’ has also been tied to this same motivation, with reports suggesting she wanted her account preserved so Helena could eventually watch it and hear her mother’s version of events.

Could Mother and Daughter Ever Reunite

The recurring theme across nearly every account of the case is that any reunion hinges entirely on Helena’s own choice once she turns 18. Her grandfather has publicly reinforced that position, framing it as a matter of letting her decide for herself rather than facing pressure as an adolescent.

Given that Helena is currently 16, that milestone is only a couple of years away, and it is the moment most closely watched by those following the story. If she chooses to reach out, it would mark the first contact between mother and daughter since Elize was sent to prison over a decade ago.

For now, the relationship exists mostly through the record Elize has tried to leave behind, in letters, a handwritten memoir, and two Netflix projects that each retell the same events from her perspective. Whether that record is ever handed to Helena in person remains something only time, and Helena herself, will decide.

With ‘Elize: Shadows of a Woman’ bringing this story back into the spotlight, how do you think Helena’s decision at 18 should play out, and would you want to see mother and daughter finally reconnect on screen or off it.