Did Brazilians die or travel?

This much has been established: A Brazilian family doing missionary work in Omaha is missing.

Vanderlei, Jaqueline and 7-year-old Christopher Szczepanik haven't been seen or heard from since just before Christmas 2009.

Authorities presume that they are dead and are so convinced that prosecutors are trying a Brazilian man, Valdeir Goncalves-Santos, on first-degree murder charges.

But a judge opened the door Wednesday for defense lawyers to delve into another possibility: that the family went on vacation that December.

While the idea of a two-year vacation may be laughable, attorneys for Goncalves argue that the vacation scenario raises further doubts about the state's case.

Among the questions: With no apparent crime scene in Omaha, the defense asks, just where did the family encounter harm?

Maybe, the attorneys say, the Szczepaniks went on a trip. Maybe something happened to them on that trip. Maybe any crime scene, if there is one, is in another state, another country, another continent.

The defense attorneys argue that such questions pose a problem for prosecutors who have to prove not only that Goncalves killed the family but that he did so in Douglas County.

"It just underscores the whole point of we don't know what the heck's going on with this family," said attorney Beau Finley. "I think vacation is just as plausible as anything else."

One former employee testified Wednesday that Vanderlei Szczepanik had mentioned that he planned to get away from the cold of Omaha and go on a vacation.

And Finley said an Omaha woman will testify that Szczepanik told her in December 2009 that he couldn't begin a renovation project for her until January 2010 because he was going on vacation.

Prosecutor Jim Masteller had asked Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka to bar any testimony about Szczepanik's vacation talk. When Otepka allowed it Wednesday, Masteller said the testimony might be an "interesting diversion" for the defense.

However, Masteller said, a vacation doesn't jibe with the items that the family left behind in their Omaha residence: coats, eyeglasses, clothes, a cell phone charger, toothbrushes, luggage.

On top of those everyday items, investigators found $36,400 in cash in Vanderlei Szczepanik's coat. And phone records indicate that the last call between Vanderlei and Jaqueline was placed Dec. 17, 2009 — the night that prosecutors think the Szczepaniks were killed.

"Not to mention — they didn't tell their (adult) daughter about any trips or vacations they had planned," Masteller said.

The vacation talk was prevalent in the early stages of the Omaha police investigation into the family's whereabouts and was one reason investigators didn't immediately presume that the three were dead.

A former employee of Vanderlei Szczepanik's construction business — Richard Martinez, 58 — testified that he was surprised when Szczepanik failed to show up on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009.

The reason: It was payday. And Szczepanik had never failed to pay his employees on Fridays.

Martinez said he had done demolition and painting work for "Vance" — the nickname he gave Szczepanik — for four months. Much of the work took place at 524 Park Ave., the same house where Martinez stayed.

During that time, he shared the house with the three men who have been questioned in the Szczepaniks' disappearance: Goncalves, Jose "Carlos" Oliveira-Coutinho and Elias Lourenco-Batista.

Authorities have portrayed Oliveira as the ringleader who helped bring Goncalves and Lourenco to Omaha to work for Szczepanik.

Prosecutors say Goncalves killed the Szczepaniks after escalating talk about how much he and the two workers resented Vanderlei Szczepanik and wanted his money.

Martinez said he had minimal interaction with the three workers because of a language barrier: They spoke Portuguese; he spoke Spanish and English.

However, Martinez said, he could communicate with Szczepanik, who also spoke English.

In late fall 2009, Martinez said, he, Szczepanik and another worker joked about getting out of the increasing chill of Nebraska.

"Vance did say he was going to go on vacation," Martinez said. "Somewhere warm, like Florida."

However, Martinez acknowledged, Szczepanik never specified his destination or when he might leave.

When Szczepanik didn't show up for the last payday before Christmas, Martinez said, he assumed that Szczepanik had gone on a trip.

But someone else didn't show up for work that day either: Martinez's three roommates.

When he eventually saw them, Martinez said, they had new cell phones. And Oliveira had new clothes.

Prosecutors say the three men purchased the items with money they stole from the Szczepaniks.

Martinez acknowledged that he had never seen any of the three workers get violent, but he did witness the aftermath of a spat between Oliveira and a male roommate named Angel.

When he walked out of his room, Martinez said, he saw Angel crying and bleeding from cuts to his wrist.

Martinez's account produced Goncalves' first outburst of the trial. When Martinez described Angel as Oliveira's boyfriend — a "maricon," Spanish slang for homosexual — Goncalves let out a "p-shaw."

Smirking, he shook his head and looked around the courtroom.

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