Halloween 2013 came earlier for the wife of former Brazilian Joao Rodrigo Silva Santos when Geisa Silva found on their home's front steps the decapitated head of her husband on Tuesday morning.

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Mr Santos did not come home from his work as owner of a health food store on Monday night. When Ms Silva was about to leave for work on Tuesday morning as swimming instructor for poor children, she found his head which was placed inside a backpack.

The chopped head itself was gory, but to make the body part more scary, Mr Santos' eyes and tongue were gouged out, CNN reports.

The 35-year-old former footballer was forward in several second-tier Rio de Janeiro football teams. He started football when he was 16, playing for the Bangu club team from 1996 to 2005. In 1998, he also played for the Olimpia club of Honduras and in 2003 for Sweden's Oster club.

The Bangu club's unofficial Web site state that Mr Silva often scored goals that made his team win.

News of his gruesome death led several clubs in Rio de Janeiro to honor their former colleague with a minute of silence on Wednesday.

The city's police said that they are investigating the killing, but they don't have yet a clue that is behind the crime. A CNN affiliate, TV Record, reported that Mr Silva was last seen in a surveillance footage on Monday night when two people entered his car, said Rafael Rangel, chief homicide investigator of the Rio de Janeiro police force.

Other reports attribute the gory crime to drug lords.

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On Wednesday morning, the police said they discovered parts of a man's body in a river outside Rio. The police is using DNA test to confirm if the body parts belong to Mr Santos.

Ms Silva said she is unaware of any threats against her husband, while relative and friends said the former athlete did not have any enemies.

The crime highlights the criminality in the key Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sau Paolo which comes at a time that the country will host the World Cup in 2014.

Mr Santos is not the first Brazilian footballer beheaded.

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