Man brutally murdered

A retired bank worker has been beaten to death after intruders entered his holiday home at Caliços in Lagoa. A family friend called at the victim’s house after he failed to turn up for a meeting, only to discover the body of 55-year-old José Joaquim Pires Melão. Extensive signs of violence were clearly visible around the victim’s head and other parts of the body. His face was disfigured and covered in blood and there was also blood spattered on the walls and other household objects, suggesting a violent altercation between Melão and his attackers. After examining the scene, police officers believe the attackers tied his hands together and hit him with a frying pan. A police spokesman also revealed that the retired banker had been assaulted and beaten in the same house two years previously, an incident which has forced officers to consider whether the murderer was the victim’s former attacker, returning to settle an old score. They are also considering the possibility that this was simply a violent robbery that ended tragically. Melão was born in Salvador, in the concelho of Serpa, and lived most of the year in Corroios. He spent part of each year at his villa in Lagoa, and, although he was married with two children, on this particular occasion he had travelled alone to the Algarve.