ZAP // Dall-E-2
Lara’s family accuses her father’s ex-partner of acting out of revenge after a fight between children. The defense invokes regret, memory failures and an alleged context of domestic violence. The girl’s father wants Eulália, who is in pre-trial detention, to “spend many years in jail”.
Eulália Silva, 48 years old, indicted for the qualified homicide of Lara, the eight-year-old girl who disappeared on Wednesday in Celeirós, Valpaços, and in Serra da Padrela, in Vila Pouca de Aguiar, was held this Friday in preventive detention, after being questioned at the Vila Pouca de Aguiar Court.
The defendant, who is also responsible for corpse concealmentadmitted having taken his stepdaughter to the mountains, but told the investigating judge that don’t remember of having been killed.
According to , Eulália cried, screamed and almost fainted when he realized that the Public Prosecutor’s Office had asked preventive detention. The decision ended up being confirmed by the judge, and the accused went to the Santa Cruz do Bispo jail, in Matosinhos. This indicted for the same crimes with which he entered court.
During the interrogation, described by the CM as relatively shortthe woman presented memory failures and panic attacksthe. He said he only remembers taking Lara to the mountains.
“Then it fell, died and I panicked. I ran away“, he told the judge. At another point, he stated: “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t in me. I never hurt anyone.” The accused also stated that she only intended to scare the child and attract attention.
The version presented did not convince the judge. The child was reportedly asphyxiated on Wednesday, the day he disappeared from home. The body was later abandoned in the Serra da Padrela, near a ruined forest house. The location would only have been known after Eulália told authorities where the body was.
The , already mentioned previously, remains central to the family’s story. The crime would have occurred after a fight between childrens, in which Eulália’s son will have become involved with Lara.
Carlos Barreirathe girl’s father and then partner of the accused, would have intervened to defend her daughter, who was being the victim of aggression. Family members and neighbors cited by say that this reprimand motivated the woman to take revenge on your partner and child.
Carlos Barreira, who received the JN team in Celeirós, at the home of Lara’s paternal grandparents, asks for a severe punishment for ex-partner. “I want her to get the maximum sentence. May he spend many years in jail.
The paternal grandmother, Jacinta Rodrigues Gomeshas no doubts about the motivation for the crime. “She killed our girl out of jealousyfor revenge. We gave everything to Lara, as is normal. She was our granddaughter and her boy never had anything. But we are not to blame for this and my granddaughter was much less to blame”, these.
The known elements also point to the possibility of forethought. The day after the fight, after Carlos Barreira had already left home to go to work, Lara got on the bus to school, in Carrazedo de Montenegro.
By car, Eulália will have followed the bus for about 14 kilometers. Upon arriving at school, she told an employee that she needed to take the girl, claiming to have forgotten that Lara had a doctor’s appointment.
Upon leaving the court, Eulália Silva was conducted under strong GNR escortwho protected her from insults and attempted aggression. According to JN, the accused had already admitted the crime to the Vila Real Judicial Police and confessed part of the facts again in court.
In court, the accused reported a case of mistreatment. According to the CM, Eulália said that her partner attacked her and her sonstated that she regretted never filing a complaint and spoke of sleepless nights and voices that popped into his head.
The lawyer also said that the woman had an altered clinical condition and that she could not explain the crime. “I have a conscience and I will pay for what I did”, he told the judge.
Despite the declarations of regret and the framework invoked by the defense, the more serious measure of coercion. Eulália Silva is in preventive detention while the investigation continues into a crime that left Celeirós shocked and the girl’s family in mourning.
For the crime of qualified homicide, he incurs the maximum penalty provided in Portugal: 25 years in prison.
