"Relatives of the 'woman in the abandoned house' are being investigated for abandonment of an incapable person"; "Understand why the woman in the abandoned house cannot be arrested"; "The Woman in the Abandoned House: How is the health of rescued dogs"; "The Woman in the Abandoned House: find out how the people in the case are doing"; "Why can't the FBI arrest the 'woman in the abandoned house?'"; "The Woman in the Abandoned House: See new photos from inside the mansion"; "'Peace is over': the impact of the 'abandoned house' podcast in Higienópolis".

"A Mulher da Casa Abandonada" is a podcast produced by Folha, authored by journalist Chico Felitti. The explanation only works for those who were on Mars in the last few weeks. The soap opera "true crime," which tells the incredible and hideous story of a couple who enslave a woman, exploded in audience without even reaching the end, and went from being a newspaper article to dominating headlines of many other journalistic sites (some not so much), like the ones in the previous paragraph, and an ocean of posts on social networks. And the concerns of readers and residents of the São Paulo neighborhood where the house is abandoned. Or was.

"We thought it could be big, but not like this. It's a milestone for podcasts in Brazil," says Magê Flores, Podcast editor at Folha and coordinator of the project written by Felitti, a longtime contributor to the newspaper, known for his rare ability to unveil absolutely unusual characters amid the harsh landscape of São Paulo. Anonymous people or not so much, for whom most look sideways. He wrote the article that became a book about Fofão da Augusta, a credential used by newspapers and journalists to present the podcast.

Felitti is the observer who narrates the story in first person. His curiosity around a visually abandoned house, in the neighborhood where he lives, and the eccentric owner transports the listeners to a plot that gradually takes on cinematic contours. The description of the chapters has been published in Folha since the beginning of the series. The countless details, however, consume the audience. Quickly, curiosity is no longer just the reporter's. This explains almost everyone leaving the first few episodes scouring Google for more information. And, of course, the success of the program.

The thing, however, is already on another level. The police officer Cidade Alerta kept a live videocast in front of the house for the last week. TV Record's scenography department set up a replica of the interior of the house, from photos and information taken from a voluminous inventory of the family, and the presenter at one point said he had received exclusive information from his own mother. A boy began to narrate on Instagram the coexistence with the apartment neighbor, who would be the protagonist's son. The story, clearly, has already left the hands of Felitti and Folha, but what about the consequences?

"We took every precaution, but it is a story that was hidden for a long time, it causes commotion and, unfortunately, this impetus to take justice into our own hands," says Magê. "And that keeps happening right now, in front of us."

A reader wrote to the ombudsman to find out if the newspaper is aware of the risks that women and their homes face in troubled times such as the current ones, which are so violent and polarized. A reader, a resident of Higienópolis, complained about the noisy presence of onlookers and the media, the attempts to invade, graffiti and climb trees in the surroundings, the "breaking of collective security in honor of the right to information." When questioned, the Editorial Department says, at the opening of each episode, it emphasizes "the technical and journalistic character of the report of notorious public interest and the repudiation of any form of persecution." This is also why the newspaper was "careful in reporting the impacts of the documentary on the daily life of the neighborhood, although without ignoring that these effects exist and deserve journalistic treatment."

Folha, however, made a single article so far about the phenomenon, when it also reported the rescue of animals from the house last weekend. This is very little.

"A Mulher da Casa Abandonada" stirs the city's unconscious, with its unresolved aristocratic and racist past. Higienópolis, the main setting of the soap opera, is the place that once feared a subway station and the different people who would come by trains. In which the deputy delegate shot down a bandit in the middle of the avenue and was applauded. And, since the advent of the podcast, the neighborhood of the millionaire who lives in misery, inside a big house, is haunted by her very existence. Not understanding that all this is part of the same plot is to resist history. The newspaper cannot afford such luxury.

_{Translated by Kiratiana Freelon}