«O principal suspeito do desaparecimento de Rui Pedro só foi acusado 13 anos depois. Como foram investigados outros casos antigos de criança...
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Cláudia Alexandra Silva e Sousa (carricinha) was last seen on 13 May 1994
"The main suspect in the disappearance of Rui Pedro was only charged 13 years later. How were other old cases of missing children investigated? The i went in search of the tracks followed by the police, as in the case of Cláudia Sousa, who disappeared from Vila Verde 17 years ago
The story has both mysterious and strange. Claudia, seven, was on her way to school, in the middle of the village, on a Friday, May 13, when she was last seen. Already 17 years have passed and the investigators of the Judicial Police (PJ) still can not explain what happened in the small place of Lamela, parish of Oleiros (Vila Verde), that afternoon of 1994.
Claudia only had classes in the morning, but spent many afternoons at school. It was there that she was playing and playing with Goreti's daughter, an employee. That Friday, the woman asked the child to go home and ask her mother for a bag, to put the garbage out of school. Claudia went, but her mother told her to go back to school and tell Goreti she had no more sacks. It was during the return - in a passage of 500 meters - that disappeared.
It was Uncle Abilio who participated in the disappearance, the next day, at the GNR station in Vila de Prado. The soldiers and the scouts stroked the wells, tanks and woods of the neighboring parishes. In vain. But there was a clue, albeit vague. A neighbor said that she had seen Claudia on the way to school and that she had approached her with a "gray or black" car, a "somewhat old model". Only Rosa L., known in the parish as Rosa Peneda, knew no more details. He had devalued the situation, did not see who was in the car, and much less knew if Claudia had entered. For suspected abduction, the case was handed over to PJ de Braga.
On June 17, two Judiciary agents will talk to their parents - João, trolha, and Maria Jesus, domestic. The couple said they had four children, two boys and two girls. The oldest at age 11, a boy with 10, Claudia with seven, and the youngest boy with five. "Parents are poor and quite alcoholic," PJ officials reported in a report. Only later was the school official heard, who told us that Claudia was about to snack at around four in the afternoon and added that it was normal for the girl's mother to give up bags for school, "for being a weaver" and having many at home.
Days later, the parents went to tell the PJ that they suspected that a cousin of the mother, called Maria Júlia, could know of the whereabouts of Claudia. Julia was 17 years old and worked as a maid in a house in Famalicão, where she would have met a boy she was dating and "thought to marry". Some time before, he would have talked to Claudia's mother and asked her to let the older daughter go to work for the bosses. Maria Jesus refused, and her cousin replied that if she did not take the girl as well she would "take it to naught, and if she did not take the elder, she would take the younger."
letters and Anonymous phone calls The police then went to listen to Maria Julia, who denied everything. He had actually met a boy in Famalicão, but he did not even have a car and they did not even date. Now, Julia was dating another boy, Rui, from a neighboring parish, "who also had no car." The cousin added that in the week of her disappearance, she would have been working at the factory every day - a fact confirmed by her boss.
However, the disappearance was reported on television and an anonymous caller told RTP that Claudia would be at the home of a couple in Odivelas suffering from maltreatment. The PJ became suspicious of a neighbor of the parents who lived in Lisbon, but the file was filed. "If no action is taken in that city of Greater Lisbon and in view of the fact that the file on the disappearance is taking place in the regional departments, file", it appears written in the investigation, which i consulted.
Shortly after, another uncle of Claudia, John, told PJ that the girl could be with some uncles who lived in Alicante (Spain). The Spanish police approached them and told them there was no sign of the girl.
About the same time, Júlia B., from Barcelos, telephones to the PJ. Less than half an hour ago she had been contacted by Claudia herself. The girl, very nervous, told him that she had been taken by two men to France. The kidnappers released her "for a little while" and managed to use the telephone. Then the call was cut off.
On July 1, a new track arrives. The PJ of the Guard sends to the PJ of Braga an anonymous letter, written by hand and in the male, with a stamp from Vilar Formoso's post office. The person reported that he was sitting "in front of the Tourism" when a white car arrived, "with the French number 3743 73 or 78". From him will have left a man "and the missing girl from Vila Verde". The sender told them that they went to a bank, but they went back because it was closed. "In the car they would look at me a lot, maybe afraid I would go to the police [...] I noticed in the girl that I was scared and he was in a bad way," he described. The PJ requested the collaboration of the French authorities, who informed that this car was, after all, a red Civic, of an unemployed man and "who said never to have traveled to Portugal".
the mystery of the certificate In October, the mother returns to be heard in the PJ and admits that there had started to appear in the parish, "not knowing how", that the parents would have sold the girl. But the researchers were in possession of much more interesting information. O
n September 7, a sister of Claudia's father, Maria Ana, went to the Civil Registry to request a copy of her niece's birth certificate. Claudia's mother told the agents not to hear such a request. The police then interrogated Maria Ana - who told her that she was only taking the certificate at the request of another sister, who lived in Gaia. He added that he had heard that the family had sold Claudia "for 400 contos." The PJ wanted to hear the reasons of Gaia's aunt. Maria P. was justified in saying that since there had been rumors that Claudia might be in Spain she contacted the Civil Guard, who replied that she could only investigate if she had the said document. But the woman would eventually confess that she did not even send him to Spain. The certificate was still in his possession and he had not told the girl's parents because he knew they would "refuse." Goreti, the school maid, is heard again in October and says that Claudia did not go to school in the afternoon just to play. Because his parents were poor, he almost always gave him his lunch. Goreti added that, shortly before the disappearance, another uncle of the girl, Julius, would have passed the school and asked the girl if she wanted to go to his house. Claudia refused and her uncle left. Hearing from the PJ, Julio confirmed everything, but said that since he was single he still lived with his father and it was frequent to take the nephews to his grandfather.
The father of the pendulums In January 1995, the PJ asked the French police for help because Claudia could be in France. The Judiciary suggests contact with a priest, Manuel P., vicar of the parish of Gentilly. The priest had been contacted by another priest, who had been told that Claudia would be near Paris in Gentilly. It would have been a third priest (working with pendulums) who had located the girl. But contacted by police, Father Manuel said he found the information vague. The case is closed on 17 March 1995.
In May, Maria Jesus returned to the PJ to report that she suspected that her daughter might be in Switzerland and that the abduction could have had the collaboration of her cousin Maria Julia, who was now emigrated and "worked with children." The police were surprised that her mother had just touched the matter. Even so, the process is reopened. The Swiss authorities did not find any sign of Claudia and everything is filed back in September.
Already in 2001, the PJ is contacted by a woman from Linda-a-Velha, Isabel, who, having read an article about the girl in a newspaper, believed she had seen her in the Alto da Serafina Park in Lisbon. Claudia would have two "very tall" Germans dressed in "gaudy fashion". The PJ quickly concluded that the testimony was not reliable. Isabel said that Claudia "looked like she was not more than seven years old." The woman did not do the math: the girl had disappeared in 1994 and in 2001 she would have to be 14 years old. Today, Cláudia is 24 years old. It has a scar about ten centimeters on the right thigh and one on the lower lip. " s