José Mascarenhas, the man, already dubbed ‘Algarve serial killer’ in the press, has been condemned (finally) to 25 years in jail for the murder of 25-year-old Brazilian ‘escort’ Josielly Rodrigues.
The belief that he also murdered young mother Tatiana Mestre, 29 – initially accepted by judges (in 2019) and later overturned on a technicality – persists, but appears not to be being pursued.
The murder of TVDE driver Sandra Andrade, however, is most definitely pinned on Mascarenhas, and the trial for that murder is scheduled to take place next year.
The most important takeaway from this week’s conviction in Faro, however, is that Mascarenhas has received the maximum jail term permitted in this country for murder.
Whatever the condemnation over the murder of Sandra Andrade, it is likely to run concurrently with the conviction received yesterday.
Sandra Andrade’s body was found dismembered and stuffed into a suitcase, which itself was stuffed into an old stone wall near the village of São Lourenço in Almancil in 2022.
The cavalier way in which Mascarenhas appears to have discarded his victims characterises all three cases: Tatiana Mestre was found, partially burnt, with her hands tied behind her back on the back seat of a burnt out car. She had been strangled. Ditto Josielly Rodrigues whose body was discovered tossed down the bank of the ICI road near Santana da Serra in the Alentejo (near the border with the Algarve).
When the judge read out the 25-year conviction yesterday, Antónia Pinela, the mother of Tatiana Mestre, clapped her hands and “became very emotional”, writes Correio da Manhã. She may never get to see the condemnation for the murder of her daughter ‘restored’, but she has at least seen ‘justice’ ensure that a brutal killer remains behind bars for a long time to come.
Source: Correio da Manhã
