A dark chapter that occurred in Montgomery Village has resurfaced in Prime Video’s new three-part docuseries Abandoned: The Woman in the Decaying House, adapted from the award-winning podcast by Brazilian journalist Chico Felitti. The gripping documentary premiered on August 15, 2025 on Amazon Prime Video and revisits a shocking case from Montgomery Village, recounting how Margarida and René Bonetti were accused of enslaving their long-time family maid, Hilda Rosa dos Santos, during their years living here.
The story begins far from Maryland, in a crumbling mansion in São Paulo’s upscale Higienópolis neighborhood. There, Felitti’s curiosity about a neglected estate led him to uncover enduring secrets tied to the Bonetti family, which led to Margarida quietly returning to Brazil after the allegations surfaced.
In the U.S., Hilda dos Santos endured decades of forced labor. According to various reports and the documentary, she lived in a damp basement, subsisted on meager meals, was denied medical care, even after suffering a severe leg injury and a growing abdominal tumor, because René Bonetti was accused of padlocking the refrigerator and pantry to control her access. Even more unsettling, she wasn’t paid for her labor and remained isolated for years. When the abuse came to light, only the intervention of neighbors and investigative reporters prompted authorities to act.
In February 2000, the Washington Post reported that “the jury deliberated about seven hours over two days before finding Rene R. Bonetti guilty of all three immigration law felonies with which he was charged: conspiring to harbor an undocumented alien, harboring an undocumented alien for financial gain and endangering the life of an undocumented alien he harbored.” Rene Bonetti was sentenced in August 2000 in a U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to 6.5 years in prison for violating immigration laws. Rene Bonetti worked in Clarksburg and Germantown during his time in the county. The Washington Post released a detailed investigative article revisiting the situation back in 2023.
The docuseries blends newly unearthed material, FBI documents, interviews with neighbors in both countries, and a first-ever on-screen interview with Hilda Rosa dos Santos herself, with dramatic reenactments and archival footage. Margarida and René were both approached but declined to participate.
About the docuseries: “After almost 30 years of silence, a victim shares new and disturbing details of the horror she experienced in the house of the woman who became known throughout Brazil as the woman with white cream on her face. “Abandoned: The Woman in the Decaying House” delves into the case that brought Brazil to a standstill in July 2022 – a peculiar lady who lives in a decaying mansion in a privileged neighborhood of São Paulo was accused, along with her ex-husband, of assaulting and keeping a domestic worker illegally in the United States for almost 20 years. Over the course of three episodes, the documentary series continues the investigation conducted by journalist Chico Felitti in one of the country’s most listened podcasts and explores the fascination with the then accused, Margarida Bonetti. Unpublished details are unearthed with the FBI and experts connected to the case. Memories previously stifled by trauma come to light.”
