ZAP
Serra de Rebordãos, Bragança
The GNR detained, in the district of Guarda, a French citizen suspected of the double homicide of his partner and ex-partner, whose bodies were found in Serra de Rebordãos, in Bragança, this Wednesday. The suspect was accompanied by two minor children.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) found, on Wednesday morning, “buried in a deserted place”, the two women allegedly killed by a former French police officer.
French media reports that the women found dead are the companion and ex-partner of the suspect.
O 41-year-old suspect was arrested this Tuesday by GNR, in a road inspection action on Estrada Nacional 102, with guards from the Mêda territorial post approaching the car he was traveling in and suspecting the authenticity of the documents presented by the suspect.
During the inspection, they also found a firearm without legal documentation, which is why they detained the suspect “in flagrante delicto for the crimes of forgery of documents and illegal possession of a weapon”.
“Following the action, and in the course of subsequent investigations carried out by the same military personnel, it was possible to determine that the detainee was referred to as a suspect in committing serious crimes, notably kidnapping and other highly serious criminal offenses, including suspected murder. In this context, the Judicial Police was immediately contacted”, said the GNR in a statement.
When he was detained He had two minors with him in the car, his childrenwhich were found safe. He also had 17 thousand euros in cash in his possession.
According to Jornal de Notícias, the location was revealedstill on Tuesday, at son (13 years old) of one of the victims and the suspect.
The boy would have provided details that allowed the PJ to locate the bodies near the old RTP satellite dishes installed in Serra de Rebordãos.
Son’s testimony was key
“Also during the night of Tuesday, the PJ obtained robust evidence that, during the morning of Wednesday, made it possible to locate two bodies, presumably of the partner and ex-partner of the aforementioned citizen, buried in a deserted location, whose investigation was presided over by the prosecutor responsible for the criminal action,” the PJ said in a statement.
“The necessary steps to identify the victims and consolidate the evidence continue to be carried out”, said the PJ, in the statement, which says that the investigation is headed by the Public Ministry of Mêda, “where the detainee will be present for the first judicial interrogation”.
According to French media, citing the French agency AFP, the two women had been reported missing since Friday in Averyon, in the south of France.
Sources interviewed by AFP said that agents from the investigation department of the Toulouse Gendarmerie may travel to Portugal in the next few hours, and the Montpellier Public Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the investigation, and is expected to release a statement on the case later today.
The suspect, according to the French media, is a former police officer, currently unemployed, and former rugby playerwho had lost custody of her children, currently aged 13 and a year and a half.
In 2021 he had already traveled illegally with his eldest son to Spain, where he stayed for several weeks.
The suspect detained in Portugal participated, together with other parents who lost custody of their children, in a hunger strike in front of the Rodez court and in demonstrations in front of the town hall of Villefranche-de-Rouergue, a commune in the department of Averyon.
