Faro PJ make arrests within 48 hours
A man, aged 54, and a woman, aged 37, are under arrest today, just 48 hours after the bodies of an elderly German couple were found in their home in Baleizão, Beja.
As reports explained on Wednesday, the bodies were in elevated state of decomposition, making it difficult to determine causes of death. They are believed to have lain undiscovered for over a month.
Some newspapers even carried updates yesterday to suggest the deaths “could have been a suicide pact” – but reports today say authorities concluded that both victims were “beaten with a blunt instrument”.
In other words, the ‘suicide pact’ theory may have been a ruse to lull the alleged attackers into a false sense of confidence.
Correio da Manhã says the arrested duo lived for a week on the German couple’s property, before ‘falling out with them’.
The pair had reportedly pleaded homelessness, and asked to stay in an annexe to the property.
Whatever caused the alleged fall-out and subsequent suspected aggressions is unclear. But CM says the couple “fled after the crime, and were found in the early hours of this morning in Aljustrel, where they had rented a house”.
According to a statement by the PJ cited by SIC Noticias, there are “strong indications of the practice of two crimes of qualified homicide, illicit”, against the two defendants, who will now appear before Beja magistrates court for an initial interrogation and “the application of appropriate measures of coercion”. In cases such as these, the almost automatic decision will be to keep both in preventive custody until a trial date.
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