The man, who newspaper Correio da Manhã named as Fernando Silva, was murdered at the beginning of this month and his killers have since been caught.
Seventy-year-old Silva, known locally as Captain Freddy, lived on a boat in Rhode Island.
His boat was found floating adrift during a storm but it took authorities two weeks to find the Portuguese man’s dead body inside.
Police quickly understood a murder had taken place and have since arrested two suspects.