Artur Esteves, the owner of Trumps nightclub in Lisbon, has been found stabbed to death at his home in the capital. One of the impresario’s employees found the body at 10am last Monday when he went to Esteves’s apartment in Rua D. João V near Amoreiras.
The employee in question then called the police who are currently studying video surveillance footage that could shed some light on the crime. Although Esteves was discovered in his apartment, investigators believe that the murder might have occurred in one of the lifts and his body subsequently dragged into his apartment.
However, the building’s caretaker said that no traces of blood were discovered in the two lifts servicing the block. Investigators suspect that Esteves knew his attacker as nobody in the building heard any noise or sound of a struggle. Police are also discounting robbery as a motive since expensive works of art in Esteves’s apartment were left untouched. Lisbon social diarist Carlos Castro, a long-time friend of Esteves, said he was “profoundly shocked” at the news of his death: “He was a very strong and courageous man. It really frightens me that he was unable to prevent this,” said Castro who recalled that the day before his death he had spoken to his friend from his quinta in Meco. “He told me that he was on his way to Lisbon.” Esteves didn’t appear at his nightclub during the evening, as was his normal routine. It is understood that Esteves was having a relationship with a young man who was said to be stunned by the news of the murder. Police are continuing their investigations.
