Portuguese Police Detain a Retired GNR Officer Over Three Teenage Girls Missing From Santa Comba Dão
Neighbors called António Costa "a good person." A court ordered him held on three counts of qualified homicide, and in 2007 he was sentenced to 25 years.
Published
Over a year, three teenage girls vanished from Santa Comba Dão, and many neighbors suspected a kidnapping ring. On June 23, 2006, police detained a retired member of the National Republican Guard who lived on their route home.
The Judicial Police of Coimbra detained António Luís Rodrigues da Costa, 53, on suspicion of killing the three young women: Isabel Cristina, 17, who disappeared on May 24, 2005; Mariana Oliveira, 18, who disappeared in November 2005; and Joana Oliveira, 17, who disappeared on May 8, 2006. A deputy national director of the Judicial Police, Almeida Rodrigues, said he was suspected of at least three killings and possibly four or more. That afternoon, a man believed to be Costa arrived at the court in Figueira da Foz, his face covered, as bystanders shouted insults.
The court ordered him held in preventive detention on three counts of qualified homicide and three of concealing a body, and he left under police escort as several hundred people gathered outside. Neighbors described Costa, married with two sons, as hardworking. "He always respected me, he was a good person. It never crossed anyone's mind that he could have done this," one neighbor said.
On July 31, 2007, the court in Figueira da Foz found Costa guilty of three homicides, two of them qualified, and of sexual coercion, concealing two bodies and other crimes, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
Sources
- Suspeito assassino em série é visto como 'boa pessoa' pelos vizinhos, RTP Notícias (Lusa)
- Prisão preventiva para presumível assassino de três adolescentes, RTP Notícias (Lusa)
- Ex-GNR de Santa Comba Dão condenado, RTP Notícias (Lusa)