A nurse convicted of helping murder a young man and cut off his fingers to access his bank account and steal his inheritance money has been captured after months on the run.
Mariana Guerreiro Fonseca, 29, was arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 6th March, following coordination between Portugal’s Judicial Police and Interpol.
Fonseca had been located and detained after she fled Portugal following the issuance of a warrant to enforce her prison sentence.
She had been sentenced to 23 years in prison for the murder of Diogo Goncalves, a 21-year-old computer engineer who was killed in March 2020 in Algoz, in Portugal’s Algarve region.
Investigators said the killing was carried out together with her then-girlfriend, Maria Alexandra Malveiro Davidachwili.
The victim was drugged, suffocated and later dismembered, with parts of his body scattered across several locations.
In court it was established that the pair targeted Diogo after he received around EUR 70,000 (GBP 60,000) in compensation following the death of his mother in a 2016 hit-and-run accident.
According to the case findings, Malveiro went to the victim’s home on 20th March 2020 and gave him a sedative mixed into orange juice, a drug prosecutors said had been obtained by Fonseca from the hospital where she worked.
Diogo was then asphyxiated before his body was placed in the boot of his Mercedes and transported to a garage at Fonseca’s home.
There, the body was dismembered with a cleaver before the remains were disposed of in different parts of the Algarve.
Parts of the body were later discovered in several locations, while others have never been recovered.
The pair were reportedly inspired by the hit TV series Dexter, whose main protagonist is a serial killer who dismembers his victims’ bodies in order to dispose of them more discreetly.
Malveiro was sentenced in April 2021 by the Portimao court to the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
Fonseca was initially acquitted of murder in that trial and instead received a four-year sentence for offences including desecration of a corpse, computer fraud and embezzlement.
However, in July 2023 the Evora Court of Appeal overturned the decision and convicted her of homicide, imposing a 25-year sentence that was later reduced to 23 years by Portugal’s Constitutional Court.
After the sentence became final, authorities issued a warrant for her arrest when she could not be located in Portugal.
Indonesian police confirmed they had detained Fonseca, who was subject to an Interpol Red Notice.
She is currently being held in an immigration detention centre in Jakarta.
According to Indonesian authorities, procedures are under way for her deportation to Portugal, with the transfer expected to take place on 9th March so she can begin serving her prison sentence.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Aloysius Fernandes, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Newsflash
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