Son recounts Wichita stabbing attack that left his mother dead and his father injured

While Marcelo Machado was in a Wichita hospital, recovering from multiple stab wounds after a random attack Saturday that killed his wife, he received messages from people all over the world.

Those people wanted to let the retired pastor know they were praying for his family.

He and his wife, Rosane, were longtime missionaries who went where they felt God called them. The Brazilian natives left huge impressions on people living all over the world, family and friends said.

Marcelo Machado, 73, was resting at home Tuesday afternoon from the wounds he received when a man came in the back door of his family’s home Saturday and attacked him and his wife.

He gave his son, Israel Machado, this account of what happened:

He was showing his wife pictures of their sons on a beach in Brazil.

Rosane Machado, 64, first noticed a man when she was in the kitchen. She thought it was a mechanic she was expecting and opened the back door. He forced himself inside, Israel Machado said.

She asked what he was doing. The man said people were following him and trying to kill him.

That’s when the man attacked.

First he pushed Machado, then he grabbed her by the throat and started choking her.

“My dad went to protect mom and then the guy, I think he had like a pan (grabbed in the house), and knocked my dad out and the guy went to (the) kitchen to grab a knife and stab them,” Israel Machado said.

Marcelo Machado woke up with stab wounds to his abdomen, neck, collar bone and arm. He asked the man, “where is my wife?,” Israel Machado said.

The man ran out the back door and jumped the fence in the backyard.

Marcelo Machado followed him out into the backyard, where he found his wife by the garden she loved.

“I believe she crawled out to the backyard and that’s when my dad saw her in the fetal position and then he cried for help,” Israel Machado said.

Marcelo Machado called her name. She shook her head, but couldn’t reply. She died at a hospital.

“My dad said, ‘I’ll do anything to switch spots with her, but I don’t think she would like to come back because right now she is with Jesus and that’s comforting,”’ Israel Machado said.

Marcelo Machado was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

Israel Machado found out about his mother’s death when his father called him from the hospital. He was visiting his twin brother and their family in Brazil. They were at the beach.

His father, with labored breathing, told him he needed to come home.

Struggles on earth

Home for Rosane Machado had originally been in Brazil. Falling ill with cancer on a trip to the U.S. led her to make Wichita her new home.

In both places, Rosane Machado had to overcome adversity.

Years ago, she was found by two people on horseback who heard a baby crying in a field in Brazil and discovered her newly born, bloody and being attacked by ants, Israel Machado and family said.

She was rescued and adopted but carried a deep feeling of rejection, her son-in-law Jeff Rogers said in a Facebook post. It wasn’t until years later at a religious conference that a woman shared a verse from Ezekiel that gave “healing to her heart,” he wrote.

The verse was Ezekiel 16:6, with the two preceding verses talking about being rejected as a baby, never washed or rubbed clean after birth, for “you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised,” it says. Ezekiel 16:6 then mentions where God “saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”

Rosane Machado committed her life to Christ when she was 14, Israel Machado said. For decades, she and her husband of 44 years ministered to homeless people in Brazil.

While living in Brazil in 1999, Rosane went to visit Karen Wheaton in Wichita after dropping her sons off at a missionary school in Texas. The two had become friends before that through an international prayer ministry.

“Her heartbeat was reaching people with the gospel,” Wheaton said.

While visiting, she became sick and tired. She later found out she had cancer.

Israel Machado, who said his mother prayed with him and led him to Jesus when he was 8, said the family felt God wanted her to be in Wichita for treatment. The drug she needed wasn’t available in Brazil, according to a 2002 story in The Eagle.

Sick and away from family, she ran out of money and her visa did not allow her to get a job, the story says. Friends and her church family helped and her husband sent what he could. Between chemotherapy sessions, she cleaned houses for donations.

It still wasn’t enough to cover her medical bills. So her physician and friend, Phil Dolan, prayed for a way he could help, the story said. He started to make calls.

“The anesthesiologist, the surgeon, everybody I asked said ‘yes’ immediately,” he told The Eagle then. “Things just fell into place. It’s unheard of, but the pharmaceutical company donated the drug she needed. That’s $40,000. It just doesn’t happen.”

He said Machado’s life was a miracle.

With help, she fought off advanced colon cancer and didn’t end up with burdensome medical bills. She then worked with patients as a volunteer with Victory in the Valley, an agency that helps cancer victims and their families, the story says.

A few years later, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which she also beat. She was currently undergoing chemotherapy again and had an upcoming surgery planned.

“But right now she doesn’t need surgery,” Israel Machado said. “She has a ... wholesome, glorified body.”

Family forgives

Despite the bouts with cancer, she stayed dedicated to serving others, Israel Machado said.

She taught a Bible study class at Asbury Church in north Wichita for about 15 years, according to Senior Pastor Rick Just.

“She was just really a bubbly, smiling person, never in a bad mood,” he said. “Very compassionate, she had a very tender heart. She would stop and pray with anyone at any time.”

Police arrested Goldy Metcalf, who was on parole after being released from prison in July, on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 4 killing of Rosane Machado. He was arrested on other crimes as well.

Earlier that day, police said, Metcalf tried to steal a vehicle but was caught and held at gunpoint by a citizen. Police cited Metcalf, and he was taken to Via Christi St. Francis for an injury. Police allege Metcalf left against the advice of the medical staff and stole a truck nearby, setting off the events that led to his encounter with the Machados.

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Metcalf with nine counts in connection with the crime spree, court records show: one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, burglary, felony theft and criminal trespass, and three counts of criminal damage to property. Metcalf’s next court hearing is Dec. 20.

Israel Machado, a lieutenant with Sedgwick County EMS, said “someone dropped the ball” since Metcalf was in custody before his mother was killed. However, Machado said the family has forgiven the man suspected of attacking her.

“I don’t want to lose her, but now that she is with Jesus, she’s in the best place,“ he said. “If I have a desire … is that this guy ... he can come to know Jesus so he can stay eternity with us in heaven. He can be with us, he can be with mom.”

A fundraiser has been set up at bit.ly/3pE1rGf to help with medical costs for Marcelo Machado and costs related to the death of Rosane Machado.

This story has been updated to add details from a 2002 Eagle report.

This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 6:03 PM.