Brazilian police said on Friday they had captured a suspected serial killer linked to at least 16 deaths since May, who was arrested while disguised as a woman and carrying a baby.

The suspect was arrested Sunday after a 30-hour police manhunt in a forested area of Paraiba state in northeastern Brazil. He was wearing a dress and a long black wig, which police described as a disguise to evade capture. In a statement, they said he had been carrying a baby in his arms.

Local media reported the child was not related to the suspect, and police did not release details on the baby’s condition or say where it came from.

“Although the suspect claimed involvement in 80 homicides, civil police have confirmed his participation in 16 killings in the region, 11 of which he confessed to during questioning,” police told AFP.

The 16 homicides all took place since May and the identities of the victims and details of the killings have not been made public. He claimed to have killed more than four times that number.

The suspect evaded an earlier attempt to arrest him a few weeks ago after a confrontation with security forces, who consider him a member of an “ultra-violent” criminal group.

In a video of his interrogation obtained by AFP, the man said he acted alone and denied having ties to organised crime.

Instead, he claimed that all his victims were “linked to the criminal world” and that he was taking justice into his own hands in response to threats against himself and his family.

“I never acted against any family man, mother or working person,” he said, denying being a “psychopath” and adding that he committed his first homicide at the age of 13.

After the earlier attempt to arrest the suspect, police seized bulletproof vests, the stock of a submachine gun, and over 100 rounds of ammunition, which the man acknowledged were his during questioning.