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Dead hubby gets cold reception
11/05/2004 20:09 - (SA)
Lisbon - A Portuguese woman has been arrested after the body of her husband was found hidden in a freezer of their home, three years after he disappeared, it was reported on Tuesday.
POlice said Maria da Conceicao Pereira, 31, continued to live in the house with her three young children for six months after she killed her husband with the help of a male friend, according to the daily Jornal de Noticias.
She told neighbours in the village of Arcos de Valdevez, 400km north of Lisbon, that her carpenter husband, Goncalo, had run off to Germany to be with another woman, but still called from time to time to ask about their children.
After six months, Pereira moved to another house, but left the body behind. Eventually the electricity to the abandoned building was cut off, and the corpse decomposed, the paper said.
Bothered by the odour coming from the home, the brother of the victim, Vitor Pereira, who lived next door, broke into the building and discovered the body in the freezer, hidden under blankets and children's clothes.
"No one ever imagined that Goncalo had died, nor did I expect to find him there", he told the daily, Correio da Manha.
The victim was asphyxiated after being drugged, reported the Jornal de Noticias. Police have also detained the male friend of the woman who is believed to be an accomplice to the murder, it added.
- AFP
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South Africa
