Boyfriend arrested at Lisbon Airport while trying to flee Portugal
A 31-year-old man has been remanded in custody for stabbing his eight-month pregnant girlfriend to death in Barreiro this week.
Vany Vieira was arrested by PSP police on Thursday morning at Lisbon Airport after having confessed the crime in a Facebook post, reports Correio da Manhã tabloid.
He was caught by PSP agents at the airport while calling family members who lived in France, asking them to send him money for a flight out of the country.
He appeared before a judge at Barreiro Court today and will await trial in preventive custody.
The horror story started on Monday, when victim Denise Rosa, a 37-year-old woman from Cape Verde who had lived in Portugal for many years, sent a message to her cousin telling her that she was not well and that they needed to talk, says CM.
“I need help,” said Denise Rosa, before sending a voice message promising to tell her cousin everything once she returned from holiday.
Denise’s cousin only heard the message after arriving in Cape Verde and was never able to contact her again.
In the following hours, several friends of Denise were warned about her ominous messages. They also tried to contact her but to no avail, the paper writes.
Their worst fears were confirmed on Wednesday night when Denise’s boyfriend wrote a post on Facebook admitting: “I killed my girlfriend”. The post was deleted shortly after, but PSP police were immediately alerted.
His text reportedly showed signs of paranoia, as he said that Denise put “pills” in his food and tried to poison him. He also reportedly doubted that he was the father of the unborn child, although friends of Denise told CM that there were “no doubts” that he was the father.
Her body was found by PSP agents at her house in Barreiro at around midnight.
Says CM, the body seemed to be there for “more than 24 hours”. At least eight stab wounds were found, mostly in her abdominal area.
Her boyfriend was caught around eight hours later at Lisbon Airport, where he was seemingly trying to board a plane to France, although CM suggests he may have planned to escape to Cape Verde, where he would be unlikely to be extradited from.
Vany Vieira had a 20-centimetre knife in his possession when he was arrested. The weapon will be examined to determine if it was used in the murder.
CM also reports that the man tried to escape the PSP police station at the airport, having tried to run out the main door. However, he was immediately restrained.
