Former Portuguese MP found buried in makeshift grave

The body of a former politician in the Madeira regional assembly, Carlos Morgado, has been found in a makeshift grave in the backyard of a house on the island. He had been cut into four sections and buried in black plastic bags.

According to the Judicial Police, the body was found on Thursday following a missing persons case that started in March this year and the arrest of two suspects, one of whom then revealed the location of the grave.

Two suspects already have been arrested, a 36-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, who both have been charged with murder, theft and desecration of a corpse which, perhaps rather foolishly, they had buried in the back yard of a guesthouse where they had rented rooms with robbery in mind.

"The investigations were based on a report that a 66-year-old man from Funchal had disappeared. It was found, thanks to a meticulous investigation, that the perpetrators conceived a plan to lure the victim in order to rob him, which ultimately led to his death," said PJ today.

The police say the attack took place in a guesthouse in the parish of Imaculado Coração de Maria in Funchal, and that the body was found on Thursday afternoon in a shallow ditch under cement and some stone slabs.

There were remains of black plastic bags and decaying clothing left at the site after the corpse was taken away by members of the Judicial Police.

The allegattion is that the couple rented two rooms at the guesthouse. One was used after Morgado has been lured there for sex with the woman. Her accomplice was in the next door room. He burst in and beat up the former politican, forcing him to reveal his bank account PIN from which €300 was later withdrawn. Morgado then was strangled until dead and cut into four sections which were bagged up and buried in a shallow ditch in rough land nearby.

The arrest of the couple and subsequent interrogation led the woman to reveal the location of the body.

The retired teacher and centrist MP was reported missing at the end of February 2014. At the time, his car was found parked near one of the major commercial areas of Funchal.

Carlos Morgado wasa  deputy in Madeira Legislative Assembly, replacing José Manuel Rodrigues when he was elected to the National Assembly, and was an independent before leaving parliament in late 2012.

There have been six disappearances in Madeira this year but the confirmation of the identity of today’s macabre find will be confirmed only after the completion of all investigation and laboratory analysis of the victim’s remains at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

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