Who is Daniel Petry? A Case of Gabriel Kuhn's Murder Case

Daniel Petry is the Brazilian teenager who murdered his friend and gaming partner, Gabriel Kuhn, for owing him $1.55. The 32-year-old Daniel was 16 when he committed the murder and received a 3-year jail term. He completed his prison sentence in 2010 but nothing is known about his current whereabouts.

Daniel met the 12-year-old Gabriel at a gaming center where they usually meet to play the computer game, Tibia, which was instrumental in bringing them together. It was in the course of their gameplay that Daniel borrowed Gabriel money to play and when Kuhn failed to pay back, Daniel devised a means of murdering his friend in his own house.

Who is Daniel Petry?

Daniel Petry is the Brazilian teenager who gained popularity for murdering his 12-year-old friend, Gabriel Kuhn.

Petry was born in 1991 though his exact day and month of birth were never captured. The Brazilian would be 32 year old if he is still alive. His birthplace is captured as Blumenau, Santa Catarina, and his ethnic background is said to be Latino.

Daniel is the son of a Brazilian lady identified as Nova Trento. Nothing was said about his father and it is not known whether he has siblings or was raised as an only child.

When Daniel’s name first hit the internet space for the murder of his friend, he was a 16-year-old attending one of the local high schools in his place of birth, Blumenau, Santa Catarina.

The youngster loved playing video games and watching television and would even skip school to indulge in his hobby.

We must not forget to mention the fact that Daniel Petry was battling with mental ill health as a teenager. His psychiatric challenges got so bad that he would take to violent outbursts in the face of little provocation. At a point, his parents had to seek professional help for the youngster. However, Daniel abandoned his treatment after attending a few sessions with his psychiatrist.

Who Was Gabriel Kuhn?

Gabriel Kuhn was Daniel Petry’s neighbor and friend. Nothing much was said about Gabriel but he was 12 when he first met Daniel and they became friends out of their mutual love for computer games.

In the story of his murder, Daniel’s mum was mentioned, though her name and profession were not listed. It was mentioned that he has an older brother but nothing was said about the late boy’s father.

How Did Daniel Petry get to know Gabriel Kuhn?

Though the youngsters were said to be neighbors in Santa Catarina, Daniel and Gabriel never got to meet until 2007 when the latter was 16 and the former 12.

Reportedly, the popular online game known as Tibia was responsible for bringing the duo together. Tibia is an enthralling multiplayer online role-playing game from the stables of the German gaming company known as CIPsoft. After it was launched in 1997, Tibia became one of the earliest computer games to be launched online.

After discovering that they love the same game, the new friends started spending quality time in each other’s company to indulge themselves in Tibia. The friends would often visit Blumenau, Brazil where they frequented a gaming center.

There is an account claiming that Daniel Petry and Gabriel Kuhn first became acquaintances before they developed confidence in each other and became close friends. However, the duo’s closeness led to a big tragedy that claimed the life of the 12-year-old Gabriel Kuhn.

Incident Leading to Gabriel Kuhn’s Murder

Money has been dubbed as the root of all evils and that was exactly what happened in Daniel and Gabriel’s case. As the game-loving Brazilian boys progressed in their relationship, they got so comfortable with each other that Daniel could lend money to Gabriel to play Tibia.

On one occasion, Gabriel needed to purchase virtual currency to the tune of 20,000 in order to be able to continue playing Tibia but he lacked the resources to make the purchase. The equivalent of the needed virtual currency in dollars was said to be $1.55 at that time. Thus, the 12-year-old looked up to his 16-year-old friend Daniel to bail him out.

It happened that Daniel Petry obliged his friend and Gabriel promised to pay him back as soon as possible. With the $1.55 he received from Daniel, Gabriel was able to upgrade his account from regular to premium and the two friends progressed in their gameplay.

After enjoying the day’s gaming sessions, things didn’t turn out as Daniel expected; his friend Gabriel went back on his promise and never made any attempt to return the money. As if that was not enough, Gabriel started avoiding Daniel and their usual gaming center. He also blocked Petry online and all these were done in a bid to avoid returning the money.

When all avenues of contacting Gabriel were blocked, Daniel became enraged and his mental ill health was his undoing as he got violent and vowed to take revenge on Gabriel.

Daniel Petry Tormented Gabriel Kuhn For One Month Before Going for the Kill

After it dawned on Daniel Petry that Gabriel Kuhn wasn’t ever going to pay him back, the then-teenager started devising ways to torment his 12-year-old friend. Daniel would torment and harass Gabriel whenever they crossed paths in the streets and reportedly, this continued for one long month before he decided to end it all.

Daniel put a call through to Gabriel’s mother on the 23rd of July 2007 at exactly 9:30 a.m. to inquire about his friend. Totally ignorant of the caller’s motif, Gabriel’s mother gave him all the information he needed to perpetrate the crime. Through the call, Daniel got to know that Gabriel would be all alone at home as his mother already left the house and would not be returning anytime soon.

Daniel Killed Gabriel at his Own Home

Armed with the information that his friend would be home alone for a while. Daniel ran to Gabriel’s house and started knocking at the door. On realizing the identity of his visitor, the 12-year-old boy was afraid to let Daniel into the house and refused to open the door.

However, Gabriel was later convinced by Daniel Petry who assured him that he had come to settle things once and for all, saying that all Gabriel needed to do was apologize to his face and everything would be forgotten. The kid was convinced and went on to open the door.

On gaining access to the house, the first thing that Daniel did was lock the door and that was when it dawned on Gabriel that he had made a grave mistake. Petry didn’t waste a minute in launching an attack on Kuhn and there were accounts that claimed he rapped the 12-year-old several times.

The attack was so brutal that Gabriel was soaked in his own blood and after Daniel eased off a bit, the youngster was able to utter a few words and told his assailant that both their parents were going to hear what had transpired between them. At that instant, Daniel got so incensed that he decided to finish the little boy off.

Leveraging Gabriel’s gaming system cables, he tied it around his neck and while strangling him, he continued the beating till Kuhn lost consciousness.

Believing that the little boy had already died, Daniel Petry tried to move his body into the attic in a bid to hide it but found it to be too heavy. Thus, he took the decision to dismember him with the aid of a saw and a kitchen knife. When he eventually started seeing, Gabriel came back to consciousness and started screaming in agony.

The little boy’s screams fell on deaf ears as Daniel sawed faster and harder until his legs fell off. At this point, the ensuing shock led Gabriel to lose consciousness a second time and he finally died when Daniel started chopping his torso into two. At the end of his operation, Daniel Petry proceeded to give Gabriel’s dead body some additional beating and then used a knife to carve the symbol of Tibia on his chest.

Petry eventually dumbed Gabriel’s dismembered body under his home’s hallway crawl space next to the murder weapon.

It was Easy for the Authorities to Pin the Crime on Daniel Petry

Getting the identity of the person who killed Gabriel Kuhn was an easy task for the authorities in Blumenau, Santa Catarina as Daniel was rather too amateur and never made any single attempt to cover his tracks. In fact, the boy was probably blinded by the rage he felt for being betrayed by his friend. Besides, we must not forget to factor in his mental imbalance which played a major role in his decision to take a life just to avenge a paltry debt.

Gabriel’s dismembered body was the first sight his big brother (name withheld) saw when he came home later in the day. On beholding the gory sight, the boy let out a loud scream that alerted the neighbors who rushed in to witness the scene.

Somebody in the crowd that gathered called the authorities and the investigations ensued. It didn’t take the police long to stumble on Daniel Petry and Gabriel Kuhn’s virtual arguments. They only needed to log into the deceased video game console to get the needed information and the device was thus registered as definitive evidence.

Daniel Petry Arrest and Subsequent Arraignment

With the evidence they collected, the police went ahead to take Daniel Petry into custody and he was subsequently accused of the murder of his 12-year-old friend, Gabriel Kuhn.

It was during his arraignment that it was revealed that had some form of mental instability and was frequently given to bouts of temper and violent actions. The trial also bared the fact that he never took his therapy seriously and thus, hasn’t gotten any help to ameliorate his condition.

All these vital bits and pieces of information came into play in securing him a much lesser sentence for the grievous crime he committed.

The first time Daniel appeared before the court, the then-teenager was unabashed in admitting his guilt. In fact, he practically shouted it from the rooftop with pride. In his brazen narration, Petry said his initial plan was even to hang Gabriel but because he turned out to be rather too heavy, he then had to settle with chopping off his body parts.

In his own words, Daniel told the judges that he needed to punish Kuhn for daring to con him of $1.55. The murderer specifically told Judge Pereira that he was willing to follow the deceased boy down to hell just to hold him accountable.

Though Daniel pleaded guilty to the crime of murder and physical abuse, he was quick to deny assaulting his victim sexually. However, when the result of the autopsy eventually surfaced, it revealed that Gabriel was sodomized before he was killed.

Daniel Received a Three-Year Jail Term

As the court trial was going on, the gravity of Daniel Petry’s crime made many think that the youngster would get capital punishment for abusing and killing a 12-year-old in cold blood. However, everybody was highly disappointed when the judges pronounced his sentence.

It happened that Daniel received just a three-year jail term for murder. It was later revealed that his age and mental instability played huge roles in the type of sentence he got. The murderer was remanded at the Juvenile delinquency center in Brazil.

Daniel’s sentence led to a lot of talk and protest from well-meaning Brazilians who saw it as a blatant miscarriage of justice. Even Tibia players all over the world weighed in on the issue, condemning Daniel’s actions while protesting about his reduced jail term.

Where is Daniel Petry Now?

Daniel Petry was freed from prison in 2010 after he completed his sentence at the juvenile correction center. Thus, people who knew about his murder case have been seeking to know the youngster’s whereabouts.

There are some accounts saying that Daniel’s parents relocated from their Blumenau, Santa Catarina neighborhood after the incident, thus, people couldn’t keep tabs on their whereabouts since their son was released to them.

One account said that Daniel, who was 19 when he left jail, allegedly went to the university to study law and is now a practicing lawyer in Brazil.

There was a time the young man was mistaken for a São Paulo resident who goes by the name, Marcos Daniel Petry, but it turned out to be a ruse. Another version of the story said the former juvenile delinquent moved to the United States where he acquired US citizenship.

With all that said, we must also factor in the last version that claimed Daniel committed suicide after he came to regret his actions against Gabriel. To date, no one really knows what became of Petry but his story keeps propping up from time to time.