With their mothers described as “absolutely desperate”, three young Brazilian women – one aged just 16 – have gone missing from an address in Lisbon, and appear not to have been heard from since January 29.
According to reports, their ‘trail’ involves disconnected mobile phones and wiped Facebook accounts.
The mystery is all the more chilling for the fact that family members trying to find the trio say they have discovered someone using a computer in Brazil has removed one of the women’s posts from social media.
The location which accessed the posts appears to have been a small town in the state of Minas Gerais.
The only person who seems to have any knowledge of what may have happened is Dinai Gomes, the former fiancée of the woman who coincidentally returned to his hometown in Minas Gerais a few days after the three women were last in contact with any friends or family members.
Gomes has since been ‘interrogated’ by local police, but his story appears to be that the sisters and their friend all went to London as the eldest, Michelle – apparently pregnant with his child – had lost her job in Lisbon.
Gomes’ story as to the Facebook changes centred on Michelle “wanting to make sure that her female boss did not find her”.
But the sisters’ mother Solange Santana is not buying it.
She has told reporters: “My girls would not go to another country without telling me”.
The families have been living in torment for four months, and only this week has Interpol finally issued an alert.
For now, friends and relatives in Brazil are trying to raise the money for the women’s mothers to be able to fly to Portugal to accompany police investigations.
According to reports, Michelle, 28, had been living in Lisbon and working as a cleaner for the last eight years.
Her sister Lidiana, 16, joined her at the beginning of January, and her friend Thayane Milla Mendes, 21, then travelled over two weeks later.
CM suggests Dinai Gomes asked Michelle to marry him last October, after she told him she was pregnant.
Michelle’s apartment was then broken into, and the identity documents she needed for her marriage were stolen, says the paper.
Meantime, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brazil has also become involved, confirming there is no record of any of the women having left Portugal, nor of their entry to the UK.
