Grief wracks parents after Brazilian axe attack kills 4 kids

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and LAÍS MARTINS
Associated Press

BLUMENAU, Brazil (AP) — They sent their seven-year-old to day care Wednesday and plunged into the deepest nightmare of any parent’s life. A man with a hatchet jumped over a wall and burst into a children’s center in southern Brazil, killing Larissa Maia Toldo and three other children who were buried Thursday. Before her burial, Larissa’s parents held hands over her white-draped coffin, decorated with a few bouquets. They and other relatives remembered the small joys of the children’s lives. Five-year-old Bernardo Cunha Machado loved pets and his family brought his toy turtle to his burial. He was talkative and had many little friends, relatives remembered. Bernardo Pabst da Cunha, 5, loved Spiderman. His father came to his funeral wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the superhero.