Natalie’s ‘second mobile phone’ discovered in Lisbon hospital hours later…
A real mystery is baffling everyone involved: a Brazilian nurse, named as Natalie, aged 38, appears to have ‘disappeared’ in the middle of a lunch she was enjoying with her father in Lisbon.
According to all reports, Natalie “got up to go to the bathroom, leaving her mobile phone, a handbag and ‘rucksack with small belongings’ at the table” and never returned…
That was on Saturday.
Yesterday, 24-hours later, there was still no sign of her, but another strange twist came into the story: a second mobile phone – also believed to have belonged to Natalie – was discovered on the floor near a drinks’ dispensing machine in the capital’s Hospital de Santa Maria (some kilometres from the restauarant). But there was no record of the woman having entered the hospital (either as a patient, or presumably via CCTV cameras).
What could have happened?
Various news outlets paint the picture: Natalie works at a private hospital in Coimbra. She travelled down to Lisbon with her father to celebrate his birthday. He is a retired colonel with the Brazilian army, aged 69.
The pair visited the Cristo-Rei in Almada (pictured above) and then went to a restaurant in Cacilhas for lunch (at around 4pm: an odd time for lunch, but they were ‘on holiday’…)
According to staff in the restaurant, the pair chose a table at the back of the restaurant, close to a television screen which they faced (with their backs to the entrance).
They apparently told staff that they were catching a train back to Coimbra at 8pm that evening from Lisbon’s Santa Apolónia station.
Then, Natalie got up to go to the bathroom – and since then… no sign (see below).
Tabloid Correio da Manhã says Natalie’s father raised the alarm half an hour after she ‘went to the bathroom’.
A member of staff at the restaurant says he remembers seeing Natalie enter the WC. No-one recalls seeing her leave it.
Natalie was wearing light coloured jeans and a black top when she went missing. Her father appears to suspect she was kidnapped. CM adds that the father said his daughter has a boyfriend, who lives in Brazil.
Adding further to the mystery is a report, in Brazil, that Natalie was found, last night, in Santa Maria Hospital – and admitted to having had a panic attack following an argument with her father. Bizarrely, none of this has been confirmed, and even the story in O Globo says the father has ‘stopped answering his phone’… ND
