Man is believed to have hung himself after committing the grisly murder
More details have emerged about the horrific murder of 49-year-old Ivone Silveira in Carvoeiro last week.
According to Jornal de Notícias, the victim’s partner, a 64-year-old man who PJ police found hanging from a tree near a family home in Monchique on Friday, had left a note in a notebook that he was planning to kill her and commit suicide afterwards.
Ivone Silveira’s body was found inside her Carvoeiro home on Wednesday afternoon by a relative who became worried after trying unsuccessfully to contact the couple. Authorities believe the victim, who held both Portuguese and Brazilian nationality, was bludgeoned in the head with a metal pipe and stabbed multiple times in the chest and neck. A sheet had been placed over her body.
Her partner, a 64-year-old Portuguese man with a reported history of erratic behaviour and psychotic episodes, was immediately considered the main suspect.
Neighbours reported cases in which the man ran through the streets of Carvoeiro naked and threw objects out of the window of the couple’s first-floor apartment. He was also admitted to Portimão Hospital’s psychiatric ward but released a day later.
In an attempt to track him down, PJ police compiled a list of properties owned by the man’s family members, which led them to the house in Monchique where inspectors found the man’s vehicle. His body was found nearby, hanging from a tree.
As JN points out, Ivone Silveira was the 15th woman killed in Portugal this year in a case of domestic violence. Silveira had already filed a complaint with GNR police at least once, the newspaper reports, adding that authorities believe she was preparing to leave her partner, as packed objects were found inside the apartment.
