New clue rekindles the mystery of the alleged serial killer, more than 30 years later. Woman recognized photo sent to SIC by another woman, who says she had private with the man she recognized in PJ’s robot portrait.
Between 1992 and 1993, over the course of eight months, five women were found deadall in situations of prostitution and drug addiction, all killed using a sharp object and all found disembowelled or mutilated. In no case were there any signs of tampering.
Three of these crimes were attributed without reservation to the same perpetrator, while in the other two there are doubts as to whether they were committed by the same person. Never knew who was responsible for none of the homicides.
Now, more than three decades after the crimes attributed to the so-called “Lisbon ripper”a new lead emerged that brought the case back under scrutiny.
A revealed this Friday that she spoke to a woman who says she knows the man identified in a robot portrait linked to the investigation. And he would also have spoken to a survivor of a 1992 attack and, even, with the suspect himself.
SIC would have shown a photo to the survivor, who assured that she recognized the man who attacked her in Restelo on November 1, 1992, when she was just 15 years old.
The woman allegedly got into a white car for 30 contos (150 euros) and was taken to a forest with ruined buildings, where the suspect beat and stabbed her. Ana survived and now says, without hesitation, that the man in the photograph is the same man she helped portray in a drawing made by PJ at the time.
The photograph would have been handed over to SIC by another woman, identified as “Ana”, who says she lived with the suspect for years, now supposedly living in the Porto region. “Ana” recognized him after seeing the robot portrait in a television report and guarantees: it is the same person with whom he had sex. Ana explained why she believes this.
Firstly, Ana recognize the white car described by the survivor to the authorities, also described by several witnesses interviewed during the original investigation.
“Ana” also says that a bracelet found at one of the crime scenes, and attributed by authorities to one of the victims, would have the initials of the suspect’s name. In April 2021, the SIC source sent a detailed email to the Judiciary Police with the information he said he had, but said he never received a response.
SIC contacted the suspectwho denied any connection to the case and classified the suspicions as “ridiculous”.
The violence of the homicides led the Judiciary Police to create a special group to investigate the case, at a time when forensic means were still far from current capabilities and when DNA tests with the widespread application of today did not exist.
Despite the new track, there is an unavoidable obstacle: the crimes are time-barred. Even if stronger elements or even a confession were to emerge, it would no longer be possible to bring the suspect to trial.
