A 75-year-old cancer patient and his 53-year-old niece are fighting for life today after being attacked and shot in the head by intruders.
The men responsible have been described as in their mid-30s: one Portuguese, the other Brazilian.
They appear to have taken their victims ‘by surprise’ after breaking into a house in Sobral, Lourinhã, in the early hours of the morning.
Say reports, the uncle and his niece “endured hours of terror” at the hands of their assailants who were intent on “looking for valuables”.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã describes the uncle as a retired bank worker with “a habit of talking of the valuable possessions he had at home”.
Among these was a reputed collection of gold coins.
Whether the raiders took any property is unclear, but their victims were savagely beaten and dumped in different locations: the man in the boot of his own car, the younger woman by the side of a road 5kms away.
Both were ‘covered in blood’, bound at the hands with plastic cable ties and showing signs of having been shot in the head.
Says CM, the intention will have been to “execute the victims”.
The woman has since had the bullet removed from her skull, while the situation of her uncle is more complicated.
PJ police meantime have been collecting trace evidence from the house where the attack took place as well as in the two locations where the victims were abandoned.
UPDATE WEDNESDAY:
The suspects have been identified and arrested in Spain and are due to be extradited to Portugal “within the next few days”, say reports.
New information suggests the woman was also raped during the ordeal.
