The prosecutor's office said today that it has charged a 36-year-old Romanian with attempted rape, sexual coercion, qualified homicide, kidnapping and desecration of a corpse.
The murder took place in Aljezur in December 2014. Schoolgirl, Bruna Nunes, was found bludgeoned to death in scrubland - she was 16-years-old.
Bruna was reported missing on December 11th, 2014 after she had failed to return from school in Lagos. She lived with her mother and stepfather, in Aldeia Nova, about a kilometre from Aljezur.
After a search, four days later Bruna Nunes’ body was discovered in scrubland near her house. She had been tied up, sexually assaulted and murdered. The autopsy reported the cause of death as 'laceration of the brain with fractured skull’ after Bruna had been hit on the head with an axe.
Locals suspected her Romanian step-father, Mikhail Rasvan Oprea, who fled Portugal the day before Bruna's body was found.
The 35-year-old was identified in 2016 by Romanian police who kept him under surveillance while legal steps were taken by the Portuguese authorities to obtain his arrest and extradition.
Oprea later was subject to a European Arrest Warran and was picked up by Romanian police on January 17th, 2017 and shipped back to the Algarve.
The Romanian finally has been charged with the murder of Bruna Nunes and remains in custody until his trial date.
