The mother of a Brazilian au pair who was stabbed to death in Denver relies on a plastic bag filled with antidepressants and sleeping pills to make it through her days and nights.
When she learned her only daughter, Ana Elisa Toledo, was killed more than 5,000 miles from home, Maria Elisa Toledo had to be hospitalized under sedation for several days.
“I was not myself,” Toledo said recently, with the help of a translator. “I said, ‘No. This is not Ana. This is not true. She was very smart. I never thought something like this would happen to her.”‘
Toledo made the trip to Denver recently with the help of friend Denise Barsness, a Brazilian-American from Massachusetts.
The two women came to get documents and property belonging to Toledo’s daughter and to meet with the Denver district attorney about the progress of the criminal case.
“Until I find out exactly what happened and get closure, I cannot go on with my life,” Toledo said.
Ana Elisa, 24, was working as an au pair in southeast Denver when she was killed Dec. 13. Her ex-boyfriend, Martin Novotny, now 23, was from the Czech Republic and also came to the United States initially to work as a nanny.
Novotny told police that days after they had broken up, he entered through a basement window at the home of Ana Elisa’s host family and stabbed her. She had 74 wounds on her body, head and face.
Toledo believes her daughter stayed in the relationship because she was so far from home and felt like she needed someone she could trust.
Ana Elisa did not tell her mother about abuse she was suffering until after the final breakup because she did not want to upset her family.
“I found out he was this monster after it happened,” her mother said.
Ana Elisa planned to continue studies in international business and travel the world because she was fluent in five languages.
Losing Ana Elisa was already more than her mother, father Orlando and younger brother Eduardo could bear, but losing her so violently and in a foreign land only magnified their grief.
Toledo said Denver police, Ana Elisa’s employer, AuPairCare, and the Brazilian Consulate provided the family with limited information.
“It was days of torture for us,” she said. “There were lots of phone calls trying to find out what happened and who did it.”
Toledo said she waits for the day she can talk to Novotny about the impact of her daughter’s death. His trial starts Aug. 30.
“Why did you do this to my only daughter?” Toledo said she wants to ask. “She was so important to me and my family. You destroyed my family. We have no desire to live anymore.”
Toledo’s husband does not talk about his daughter’s death. Orlando Toledo merely sits by himself with photographs of his daughter, tears streaming down his face.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
