Married man from Quarteira suspected of killing at least three women
“Night of sex in a brothel paid with money from murdered woman”: this is the headline of tabloid Correio da Manhã today, revisiting the case of suspected Algarve serial killer ‘Kenny’ – real name José Mascarenhas, previously given as António Mascarenhas – whose formal charges have finally been presented.
Kenny/ Mascarenhas is in jail on drug trafficking charges, and thus unlikely to be released before what will be the murder trial for at least one, if not all three women, he is suspected of having killed.
CM says prosecutors will be asking for a trial by jury.
The real tragedy in this case is that Kenny/ Mascarenhas was caught, convicted and jailed of the ‘first’ murder that shocked the Algarve, but released on appeal after 20 months on a technicality – DNA found (pointing to his involvement) ‘could have been contaminated’).
As prosecutors will be alleging, he went on to commit at least two other murders – those of Portuguese TVDE driver Sandra Andrade, whose dismembered body was discovered in a suitcase in the heat of August 2022, hidden in a stone wall in São Lourenço, near Almancil, and Brazilian prostitute Josielly Rodrigues, found partially burnt in the boot of her own car dumped in Ourique (lower Alentejo).
It was with Josielly’s bank card that Kenny/ Mascarenhas is understood to have paid for “a night of sex with a prostitute”.
According to CM, the young woman’s killer used her car to drive to the brothel, with his victim’s body lying in the trunk. He is understood to have driven the car in this condition for a number of days, before dumping it.
Whether the future trial will include new evidence to bring in the case that initially saw Kenny/ Mascarenhas convicted for the murder in 2018 of young mother Tatiana Mestre, is not clear. But police have been working on this case for months, after linking the three murders early on in 2023.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
