Police continue investigating macabre murder of 21-year-old, alleging it to result from a personal vendetta to ‘settle a score’

Diogo Gonçalves, a 21-year-old from Albufeira, was found dead last Thursday. The man’s head was found at Pego do Inferno, in Tavira, by water by a French couple whilst hiking.

Roughly at the same time, the decapitated and amputated body of the man was discovered at the base of a cliff next to the Beliche Fortress, at the other end of the region, in the western municipality of Sagres.

The Judiciary Police is investigating the case, but according to a source interview by the national newspaper Correio da Manha “one of the strongest lines of investigation is in the sense that Diogo Gonçalves may have been murdered by someone he knew. At stake may be the settling of a score.”

Diogo Gonçalves attended the Secondary School of Albufeira. Professionally, he worked as a computer technician at the well-renowned resort Vila Vita Parc, in Porches, in the municipality of Lagoa. He was previously a shift manager at a local McDonald’s.

He had been missing since March 18^th, and his car was only found last Thursday morning. It was parked near Sagres, next to the Cabo de São Vicente. The decapitated and dismembered body was discovered during in a search carried out by the Lifeguard and Shipwrecks Institute, wrapped in plastic, a few hours after police located his vehicle. The macabre crime is shocking the Algarvian community, and remains under investigation by the Judiciary Police.

In a logistical sense, it was initially discussed which jurisdiction would be deemed responsible for investigating the murder, since the boy’s head and torso were discovered approximately 150 km, and his limbs are still yet to be found.