Alleged murder of elderly German couple in Beja denies responsibility for crime

The trial of the two alleged killers of an elderly German couple in the village of Beja began on Tuesday. One of the accused denies responsibility for the crimes, but does not rule out that they were committed by another suspect.

At the start of her trial in Beja Court, the defendant, a 38-year-old woman charged with two counts of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, agreed to testify that she did not agree with the prosecution.

“I didn’t kill them. I don’t know if it was Fernando. [o outro arguido]but I won’t put my hand in the fire for anyone,” he said.

The defendant, accused of the same crimes, and his partner, a 54-year-old man, chose not to speak at this stage of the trial.

Before a panel of judges hearing the case, the woman told how she had lived on the German couple’s farm for four days with her mother and partner, and said the three of them had done housework and farming work.

“Fernando said that you will pay for the services we provide,” the defendant responded when the team president asked if they were unhappy with the lack of payment.

According to the woman, the defendant and the elderly German man often quarreled, and one of the reasons for the disagreement was the lack of meat in the dishes they ate at the nursing home, since the German couple were vegetarians.

The defendant said that on April 16, 2023, named by the prosecutor’s office (MP) as the day when the murders occurred, after dinner the defendant remained in a room alone with an elderly woman, and then asked the woman to call the elder.

“I don’t know what happened inside. I didn’t hear anything,” he emphasized.

Shortly thereafter, he continued, the accused left the house with a bag containing three of his belongings, including a lamp, walked and eventually called a taxi which took them to Beja, where they stayed overnight in a guest house.

Noting that she never returned to the German couple’s farm, the woman again could not guarantee that the defendant had not done so because the next day the man was absent from the guest house where they were staying for an hour and a half.

During interrogation by the judges, the defendant admitted that already in Alustrel, where they had since moved, she was traveling with the defendant in the victims’ car and saw him using the bank card of a German couple.

“Fernando told me they gave him the car because they owed them money,” he explained, giving the same answer when asked about his bank card.

Regarding the sale of the car for 200 euros, the woman emphasized that the defendant concluded the deal.

One of the judges also confronted the defendant with alleged inconsistencies between her testimony and that of her mother, particularly regarding her presence in the house at the time of the murder, but the woman maintained her version.

The two defendants, who are in pre-trial detention, are expected to return to court Wednesday for closing arguments.

The murder of the elderly Germans took place on April 16, 2023, at the couple’s farm in Baleizao, municipality of Beja, but the bodies were only discovered by authorities almost a month later, on May 11, after a warning given by the authorities. son who lives in Germany.

According to the prosecution, the defendants took advantage of the fact that the 71-year-old woman was alone and “hit her several times with an iron rod.” The defendant then went to call an elderly man who was in the outbuilding and when he entered the house he was struck “several times with an iron rod to the head, torso and limbs.”