The 32-year-old man, father of a nine-month-old baby, contacted the woman via video call, telling her what he had done and has been missing since then.
According to a source from the Viana do Castelo GNR Territorial Command, the cell phone location revealed that he “still used his cell phone at a certain distance from the location”.
After he became uncontactable, ground searches were initiated and by the end of Friday night thermal drones had been activated to try to locate him.
On the table, there is also the hypothesis that he was inside the stable destroyed by the flames, although in the first hours of rubble removal work, no body was found.
“We have checked several times and only found dead animals. I cannot ignore this issue, but we have already visited the pavilion several times and have not found any victims”, said the Commander of the Ponte de Barca Volunteer Fire Department, Carlos Veloso, revealing that the bodies of around two dozen animals were found, including cows and sheep, and probably also a dog. In addition to the cattle deaths, the fire destroyed a motorcycle and a tractor that were inside the stable and two vehicles outside.
“At first, his belongings caught fire. He wasn’t doing very well. He was depressed and that’s what led him to do this. It was something that happened in the head, we don’t know”, said a family member of the missing man, commenting that “everything was fine on a family level and on a financial level there was no problem either”. “He spoke to his wife via video call to say that he had made a mistake and that maybe he was going to do more”, he added.
The fire started around 3pm and was extinguished around 7pm. For the work that followed, a backhoe was used. The Judiciary Police (PJ) were called to the scene.
