Paulo Novais / LUSA
Eira, Montemor-o-Velho, February 3, 2026
The couple has been missing since Tuesday, when they last spoke to their daughter. The searches intensified this Saturday.
The disappearance of a couple residing in Verride, in the municipality of Montemor-o-Velho, is mobilizing authorities and members of the public in a search operation that intensified this Saturday, after several days without any contact.
Venâncio, 68, and Maria de Fátima, 65, were last seen on Tuesday, the 10th, when they spoke to their daughter, Laura Santos. The situation has become more worrying after the transshipment of the Mondego Riverwhich caused significant flooding in the region. Fearing that her parents might have been surprised by the flood, Laura alerted them to the disappearance on Friday.
The searches began that afternoon, but were suspended at around 10 pm due to the lack of conditions. The work resumed on Saturday morning, but was suspended at 7pm, with 14 operatives and five vehicles involved, according to a source from the Sub-regional Civil Protection Command of the Coimbra Region.
The searches also began this Sunday at 9 am, a source from the GNR Territorial Command in Coimbra told the Lusa agency. According to the same source, the search perimeter was expandedwithout, however, specifying further details.
According to the commander of the Soure Fire Department, João Paulo Contente, on Saturday, the searches are taking place in the western part of the municipality, in the parish of Vinha da Rainha, in an area that covers the agricultural rice fields of Vale do Pranto.
According to , the couple had the habit of traveling to the neighboring municipality of Sorocaba. Given the flooding on the main roads close to Mondego, it is believed that they may have opted for secondary roads to undertake the trip. The authorities concentrated their investigations precisely in Sorocaba, where the last signal from the couple’s cell phone was recorded.
The operations are supported by military personnel from the National Republican Guard (GNR), firefighters and teams equipped with drones. They carried out a first aerial inspection of agricultural fields that had since been submerged, in an attempt to locate the couple’s vehicle, a Citroën Saxo. It is also planned to use infrared cameras to detect any signs between vegetation and flooded areas.
The Vinha da Rainha area, in the western part of the municipality of Soure, has been the main focus of the searches, especially near rice fields that were flooded after the waters rose. So far, however, the operations have not produced results.
