A year later, Pereira was arrested miles away on robbery charges. Taina caught the authorities' attention when she was 16 after her mother reported that she had gone missing. At some point, Taina was gifted her first knife by her grandmother.

Taina looked up to her grandmother and was inspired to learn about the art of interrogation. She had the uncanny ability to see through any of their lies. Their grandmother helped their often exhausted mother with discipline. Stricken by poverty, Taina and her brothers grew to be strong and independent for the sake of their mother. She was six years old when the Pereira family was forced to move to a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Her father had died before she was born and her mother only received a small pension for his death. Taina was born seventh in a family of ten boys on October 15th in the small town Rinópolis within São Paulo.