This afternoon the police had gathered enough evidence for a charge of homicide to be levelled by the prosecutor at an expat Briton over the 'body in the garden.'
The corpse of a British woman who had been missing since last November was found by police last night, buried in the garden of the isolated house where she had lived for around ten years near Alcalar, Portimão, according to a police source this morning.
The body was found in a grave that had been capped with a cement slab. Police had to use pneumatic drills to break up the cement to reveal her remains.
According to an initial police statement, "The victim's body was found buried in the garden of her house near Portimão, after her husband had revealed the location to the Judicial Police.”
A team of police returned just after noon today to collect evidence and to try and clarify the circumstances surrounding the woman's death.
The 59 year old partner was the only suspect and forensic reports were key to the charge of murder.
He also is British and is believed to have been responsible for revealing the location of the concealed body to police, claiming that she had committed suicide.
The victim, named as Brenda, was 72-years old and was assumed by neighbours to have returned to the UK but her son raised the alarm when she was found to uncontactable in either country.
Comments
This 'open and shut' case is not something to bother the British Police with - so, no worries there and back to you, PJ chappies.
But is there a specific crime for this in Portugal ? If a suicide - that is unfortunate but the husband is not automatically at fault. So not declaring a death ? Concealing a body from lawful burial ?
What is the betting he will be done for Unlicensed building work ?
As we have all read though - gassing an entire housing estate at Vila Franca de Xira isn't apparently covered by any specific Portuguese law.