Police are investigating the horrific discovery of a woman crushed to death in a paper-pulping machine at the back of Continente hypermarket at Cruz de Parteira in Portimão.
The 37-year-old woman is understood to have been a cleaning lady at the complex who had ‘gone missing’ earlier in the day.
Staff looking for her noticed a pair of shoes near the pulping machine and this is what caused them to alert the authorities.
According to reports, firemen had to “disconnect the compactor from the tubing” within the machine and it was only then that “visual contact” with the woman’s body was possible.
As staff at the hypermarket remained unavailable for comment, newspapers revealed that the woman had recently been widowed and had two small children which are now being cared for by relatives.
Correio da Manhã named the dead woman as Nazaré Branquinho. She was an employee of cleaning company Vadeca, writes CM, and, thus far, what led her to her gruesome death in the pulping machine remains a mystery.
