Six years to the day since Mariana Fonseca took part in the brutal murder of 21-year-old IT technician Diogo Gonçalves in the Algarve, the former nurse at Lagos Hospital is ‘back in jail’ staring at a 23-year jail sentence.
In the intervening years, Fonseca has been both absolved of her part in the murder, later condemned to a full life term following an appeal by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. An appeal saw that full life term reduced by two years – and then through her lawyer she set out to appeal.
Six months ago, when she realised she had exhausted all the legal possibilities remaining to stay out of prison, Mariana Fonseca went on the run, to a country that she believed did not have an extradition agreement with Portugal.
PJ police must have pulled some sizeable rabbits out of hats to secure her extradition from Indonesia after catching up with her via Interpol earlier this month – and today she begins the 23-year term she was trying to evade: exactly six years since she and her former lover Maria Malveiro murdered their victim in order to plunder a €70,000 ‘windfall’ he had come into following his mother’s tragic death.
It wasn’t enough to kill Gonçalves, the pair conspired to dismember his body, dumping various parts in different areas of the Algarve.
Fonseca, now 29, can expect to be held in jail certainly until her late 40s before she qualifies for parole. She is in Tires women’s prison, near Lisbon (which is where her former lover committed suicide a little over four years ago).
According to a source for the syndicate of prison guards, the former nurse will be held in an observation cell for 14 days to be submitted to various clinical ‘exams’, and then integrated within the prison community. Fonseca is not a stranger to Tires, as she was held there in the run-up to her initial trial in 2021.
The PJ coup of restoring justice in this case has been a long time coming. It was in July almost three years ago that Évora Appeal Court overturned the initial ruling of April 2021. Fonseca’s various appeals delayed everything, until she ultimately absconded.
As noticiasaominuto recalls, the murder occurred on March 20, 2020. Diogo Gonçalves believed he was in a relationship with Maria Malveiro, which is why he opened the door to the two girls, and paid with his life.
Source material: noticiasaominuto.com
