The Woman in the Abandoned House and the James Webb Telescope: understand the relationship

The podcast A Mulher da Casa Abandonada attracts listeners from all over the country with a story hidden in Higienópolis, one of Brazil’s wealthiest neighborhoods in São Paulo.

In the production of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, journalist Chico Felitti investigates what is behind an eccentric woman living in a dilapidated mansion.

1) Abandoned House

There’s a standout home in Higienópolis, an upscale neighborhood in São Paulo filled with boutiques, stylish restaurants, and modern residences.

In the midst of all this delicacy is an abandoned house. pic.twitter.com/Pz3efbYriM

— Tracklist (@tracklist) 1 July 2022

The woman is Margarida Bonetti, now accused with her ex-husband Rene Bonetti of keeping maids in a slavery-like regime for nearly 20 years. The murder occurred in the United States when the couple moved to the country in the 1970s. Moreover, the victim, who was Brazilian, was released only after a neighbor reported what had happened.

Rene Bonetti was convicted of the crime and had to serve bail in jail. Margarida fled the United States and began living in the now crumbling house. As far as we know, she never compromised with American justice.

But what does the James Webb Space Telescope have to do with it?

Rene, an electronics engineer, had moved to the United States in the 1970s to work for a satellite company. In one of the podcast episodes, Felitti learns where the man currently works: at Northrop Grumman, an American technology and innovation company. operating in the aerospace industry.

According to NASA, the company is one of the industrial partners of the James Webb mission.

Rene’s profile on LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, shows that his role is payload manager and lives in Sterling, Virginia (USA). This professional is responsible for handling the load that a vehicle can carry; In the case of Northrop, this may involve working with very sensitive content used in the aerospace industry.

With the scale of the operation that gave rise to today’s most important telescope, with an estimated cost of $10 billion, Rene may have even worked with the equipment at one point.

The Woman in the Abandoned House podcast is an audio series with new episodes weekly. This Wednesday (13), the sixth episode of the program was broadcast.