The much-loved parrot of a murdered grandmother has become a bizarre hostage in a new drama playing out in the sleepy village of Alcalar.
The female African grey was given for safekeeping by the animal protection police to the neighbours of Brenda Davidson, after the 72-year-old’s body was found buried with knife wounds under concrete in her garden.
But when Mrs Davidson’s son Dean went to collect it, to take the bird home to his children, the neighbours are understood to have refused any hand-over.
“You can’t prove it’s your mum’s parrot,” Dean is understood to have been told.
The latest twist in these desperate months that have seen his mother buried unceremoniously in tarpaulin; her partner remanded in custody suspected of her murder and then the property burgled, has proved almost too much for former policeman Dean.
“It’s an absolute disgrace,” he told us. “My children are heartbroken. They’ve been through the mill over what happened to their grandmother. They just want to be able to give a good home to their grandma’s parrot, and then this happens.”
The neighbour, named by Dean and Portimão municipal vet Dr Osvaldo Mateus as Ginny Fischer, is understood to be adamant that Dean cannot “prove” the parrot belonged to his mother.
This is helped by the fact that the parrot’s papers mysteriously went missing in the general furore surrounding the discovery of Brenda’s mutilated body in January.
And as far as we have been informed by the British Consulate, the ring that proves ownership and can be found on one of the bird’s legs is hampering identification.
But as Dr Osvaldo told the Resident on Tuesday: “This cannot be. I need to talk to these people. They knew exactly why they were looking after the parrot. There were a lot of animals abandoned in the house and these people were entrusted with the parrot.”
Dr Osvaldo told us he would be “visiting” the Fischers on Wednesday morning and would then have more news for us.
Meantime, Dean Davidson has vowed he will start legal proceedings if the bird isn’t returned to his safekeeping very soon.
