A Barreiro community is living in fear after the brutal murder on Monday of a 57-year-old cleaning woman.
Isabel Ribeiro is already the third victim of domestic violence to have died in the last three weeks.
After years of abuse and encouragement by friends and family to leave her aggressor, she had finally made the move and was being given psychiatric help.
But as she went about her job, cleaning the home of a local doctor, her former partner is alleged to have caught up with her, and shot her at point blank range in the head.
Since then, there has been no trace of former bus driver Manuel Ribeiro.
Notes that he left behind at his home, pointing to suicide, have prompted searches that have now been called off, writes Correio da Manhã, as police have concluded he may have been trying to lead them astray.
Locals in the district tell the paper they are terrified that Ribeiro may have a list of grudges that he wants to settle – particularly as many of them had been instrumental in encouraging his former partner to leave him.
One has described how Ribeiro said “hours before the murder” that he was going to “shoot five shots” that day.
Up until now, there appears only to have been one.
As fear stalks the streets, the dead woman’s son – who lives in England – is due back in Portugal today to claim his mother’s body from the hospital mortuary.
