In a first order signed by the MP Prosecutor, on November 9 last year, the magistrate accused Fernando Belmonte, aged 54, and Mónica Lourenço, aged 38, of a crime of murder, despite being at Quinta do Paraíso Janedi, in Baleizão , the bodies, already in an advanced state of decomposition, of the German couple, Jan Otton, aged 79, and Ilse Ediltraud, aged 71, were discovered.
In a new order dated November 17, the magistrate assumes that “the signatory made a mistake in writing, for which she is punished, reproducing the duly corrected order closing the investigation”, starting to accuse Fernando and Mónica of two crimes of qualified homicide.
The murder of the septuagenarian couple occurred on April 16 last year, when they were last seen in Baleizão, but the bodies were only discovered on May 10, after an alert from the victims’ son who was unable to contact his parents.
The GNR went to the scene and as the residents showed no signs of life, they informed 112, who called the firefighters “to open the door”, discovering the couple in an advanced state of decomposition inside the house.
Fernando and Mónica were arrested on May 12, 2023, in Aljustrel, by inspectors from the Southern Directorate of the Judiciary Police, and the following day they were present for their first interrogation, before a Criminal Investigation Judge of the Beja Court, who applied to them the most serious measure of coercion.
The man is in preventive detention at the Beja Prison Establishment (EP) and the woman at the Odemira EP, with the trial scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, at 9.30 am at the Beja Court, with the participation of a Panel of Judges.
Tags: Public Ministry admits lapse accusation couple killed Germans
