Jacinta Rees murdered covered up by Portugal police

Taken from Bonny - JATYK

Unbelievable!!!

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sunday-heraldsun/jacinta-rees-murdered-covered-up-by-portugal-police/story-e6frf92f-1225942731759

Jacinta Rees murdered covered up by Portugal police




A MELBOURNE woman was murdered in Portugal and her death covered up by police there, a Sunday Herald Sun investigation has found.

Former international model and fashion executive Jacinta Rees was hacked to death with an axe at her cottage in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, two years ago.

In a sequence of events chillingly similar to the death of Britt Lapthorne, local police claim the death was a suicide - despite a coronial examination in Australia finding she died of extensive injuries caused by repeated blows with an axe and evidence of defensive wounds on her arms and legs.

Family members have been investigating the mystery of her killing ever since. They say they have received little help from the Australian Government.

Portuguese authorities contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun would not provide any information.

The family claims consular officials botched its initial dealings with the Portuguese and have abandoned the family in its search for the truth.

"All we want is to know the truth about what happened to her. She was our sister and our parents' child - she deserves better than this," said Jacinta's brother, Cameron.

Jacinta died in April 2008, in the courtyard of her home at Sao Bras de Alportel, near the city of Faro.

Portuguese police told local reporters her death was an accident, then said it was suicide.

But a Victorian Coroners' report says she died from "blunt force injury to the left side of the head".

"This injury pattern with trauma to both head and the left arm raises serious concerns. Further investigations are being undertaken via the Victorian Police Department's homicide squad," it concludes.

An initial Portuguese autopsy report also suggests Jacinta's death was a murder.

"There are signs highly probable of defense being the elements of the autopsy suggestive of homicide with data that favour extreme violence highly difficult to attribute to the self ... ," a translation reads.

Despite those reports, the Portuguese police closed the investigation and passed the case on to the Interior Ministry as a diplomatic matter.

Police spokesman Comandante Guerriero, of the GNR - the Portuguese national police - told a local newspaper "There is no suspicion of murder" and that there was no suspicion of robbery or any other crime.

Mystery surrounds the case. Locals were reticent to speak about it.

Did she know too much?

One theory about Jacinta's death was that she found out something that cost her life.

The area where she lived is a trafficking route from North Africa and the Middle East for the illegal trade in drugs - mostly hashish - and also in stolen children.

The village of Sao Bras de Alportel is 30km from the resort of Praia de Luz where British child Maddy McCann disappeared.

Her family said child smuggling was an issue Jacinta was concerned about and might have spoken up about.

"Jacinta may have stumbled across something," brother Cameron said.

"She left a note for someone saying she was leaving and she did not know how things would work out and asked that they forgive her, but the police construed it as a suicide note," he said.

"It wasn't a suicide note - she was scared of something.

"Jacinta may have stumbled across something."

The Rees family said they felt let down by the Federal Government.

They said the Lapthorne family and the victims of the Kokoda air crash were given appropriate help and compassion while they had received little help.

The family had to pay for the repatriation of Jacinta's body and was eventually reimbursed by the Government.

"We were contacted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in April 2008 to say that Jacinta had passed away. We were told she had committed suicide," Cameron's wife, Louise, said.

"It took us a month to bring her home. It was a while before her body arrived home."

Two days before bringing Jacinta home, the Rees family asked the Victorian Coroner to do an autopsy.

"The Coroner agreed and there was a DNA test done first which identified the remains as Jacinta," Louise said.

"At the start of the autopsy, the Coroners' office called in the homicide squad.

"Her injuries were so apparent and appalling - it was obvious she had been brutally murdered.

"It clearly was not a suicide."

Government 'abandoned us'

The Portuguese police had said she died from a self-inflicted wound to the forehead and there were no signs of attack or defence.

"But Jacinta's skull had been caved in with an axe. She clearly had defensive wounds also.

"Her elbow had been shattered, her knee was damaged and there were four separate wounds to her head - each of which could have killed her.

"She suffered a horrendous death and she most certainly fought for her life.

"The GNR determined this was a suicide and our embassy concurred.

"To this day, no one has given us an answer as to what happened to Jacinta. We've sent off letters to heaps of people in positions of influence. No one's interested, absolutely no one," she said.

The family received the Portuguese Assistant Prosecutor's report into Jacinta's death in December 2009 - almost two years after her death.

They have been quoted up to $19,000 to get it translated into English. The Federal Government has refused to help.

The family said DFAT's mismanagement of the case had cost it financially and caused much heartache.

"Despite all the facts, DFAT has never acknowledged Jacinta's death as a murder," Louise said.

"It was going to cost $4000 each to send Cam and his brother Phil to Portugal and then another $15,000 to bring Jacinta home.

"We based our decision not to go to Portugal on the embassy's advice; we decided we couldn't afford for Cam to go and there was nothing we could do anyway.

"Had we known that Jacinta had been murdered, or at the very least that her death was suspicious, we would definitely have found the money for Cam to go.

"We based our decision not to go to Portugal on the embassy's advice. We trusted their information. But as the weeks went by and we received more unofficial information it was clear the embassy hadn't looked into this properly, they had just acquiesced to what the Portuguese police had told them.

"The AFP was not advised Jacinta had passed away and there's no AFP presence in Portugal."

Along the way the funeral director would not release the body because it had not been officially identified.

"We phoned DFAT and were told they would take care of it. But we found out later they didn't identify her, they just gave some sort of authority to release the body," Louise said.

"Apart from the trauma and heartache, the financial impact on the family has been gruelling. Sorting out Jacinta's affairs meant Cam wasn't working and we had to cash in his long service leave to be able to afford to bring her home.

"We didn't qualify for victims of crime compensation in Australia because the crime occurred in Portugal and we didn't qualify for a similar scheme in Portugal because we are Australians.

"We have been impacted by a murder in a foreign country we've never visited committed by a person we do not know.

"We watched as tragically, nine Australians were killed in the Kokoda plane crash. Our Government flew them home.

"When Britt Lapthorne disappeared Kevin Rudd said 'we will leave no stone unturned'.

"It took us 24 days to bring Jacinta home. We had no idea what we were doing, we did it on our own and we had to pay for it.

"When loved ones die, the pain and grief is difficult enough, but the murder of a loved one is almost too much to bear. Our trauma is as much about the fact the Government abandoned us and we've been left to pick up the emotional, psychological and financial pieces.

"We were visited by DFAT officials eight months after Jacinta died, but we felt we were just being 'handled'. We have never had a condolence message from either the Australian or the Portuguese government."

Was this case coordinated by Amaral??????????
Jacinta died in April 2008, in the courtyard of her home at Sao Bras de Alportel, near the city of Faro.
Taken from the mccanfiles, about Gonc's departure from the PJ:
Police chief is now free, 01 July 2008
Before lunch, which lasted from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m., the controversial coordinator of criminal
investigation delivered his duty pistol, his badge and his card at the Faro Directory

The area where she lived and died is a trafficking route from North Africa and the Middle East for
the illegal trade in drugs - mostly hashish - and also in stolen children.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sunday-heraldsun/jacinta-rees-murdered-covered-up-by-portugal-police/story-e6frf92f-1225942731759
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sunday-heraldsun/jacinta-rees-murdered-covered-up-by-portugal-police/story-e6frf92f-1225942731759

Australian Family says she was killed because she knew more
by José MANUEL OLIVEIRAOntem

The case dates back to 2008. GNR asserts that was suicide, family speaks on serious injury

The family of Australian Jacinta Rees, found dead in March 2008, in the garden of their house located on the site Corgas Bravas, in an area isolated from barrocal, about ten kilometres of São Brás de Alportel, the Portuguese authorities should ask the reopening of the case. The GNR gave the case as closed, pointing the thesis of suicide but the family not comform and alleges that Jacinta left a strange letter and information about child trafficking.

A sister-in-law ensures that an autopsy performed in that country, where the body was translated one month after the death, points to "crime" and not for suicide as argued, at that time, the GNR and the judicial police. Forensic examinations in Australia indicate that the skull "had been opened by an axe and she had defensive wounds" in an elbow.

Jacinta Rees, former model and businesswoman in the area of fashion, lived in the Algarve. His brother, Cameron Rees, launched the idea, in Australian Press, there have been even a premeditated crime. "Jacinta might have information that were annoying may have discovered something and was silenced. She left a letter saying that if ia though and did not know how things were done. Is not a ticket of suicide. But perhaps a warning her to feel scared with something, "he admitted. The family gets to the point of pointing to the existence of drug trafficking in the area of Algarve and even Jacinta can be then in possession of information on trafficking in children.

A lawyer contacted yesterday by DN, stated that "since the relatives present new evidence with consistent data, the process will be sent to the Prosecutor that assess and take the decision to proceed or not, their reopening" for research. "A crime of manslaughter only prescribes after 15 or 20 years," added expressing, however, its strangeness because the family of Jacinta Rees come, now, after two years, to denounce the situation to the Australian Herald Sun newspaper. "there may be confusion in this process. At autopsy performed in Portugal, the skull must have been opened for investigations. Signals that the family says being an axe to crack it may be that work carried out by the authorities, "noted the same lawyer.

Different version, according to the Herald Sun, has the police forensic Australian, which confirmed the aggression committed by an axe. On the other hand, there are indications of Jacinta Rees has been reached with "a crude coup and deep on the left side of the head," getting even with right elbow "party", supposedly attempting to defend the aggressor. "The wounds were obvious. Was a murder ", claimed the relatives.

"We just want to know what actually happened. She was our sister and daughter of our parents. Deserves better than this. Didn't help to discover what happened. We were abandoned, "said Cameron Rees. It is reminded that, in response to surveys, in 2008, the GNR departed the suspected crime (or theft, or violence). Already an official source of GNR, Algarve, told the DN that the case was investigated by Judicial Police. Yesterday, was not confirm other reactions to this case.

Sorry, can't cope with this at the moment. All a bit too much for me.
The Incompetence and Corruption in Portugal is doing my head in.
Such a beautiful Country with some really happy memories for me. But even then I was aware of the fear. I was there when The Revolution was going on, and it scared me half to death, so God knows what it can have done for the ordinary people.

Things have not changed.

Publicity is what it needs. Let´s hear more of this case!

SHOCKED !!

I see they are suggesting in Portugal that it may have been the "result of the autopsy that her skull was cracked open........" ??????

I'm deeply sorry, but cases of 'suicide by police' do exist everywhere, not only here. I was living close to Windsor some years ago and one day the police called at my door asking questions because a young 21yo woman had been found drawned on a lake nearby, her hands tied with rope behind her back. They where treating it as a suicide. It took a very hard time for the family to convince them that it definitely was a murder. Don't know if they ever caught the criminal.

What really is important for me is this bit of the news:

One theory about Jacinta's death was that she found out something that cost her life.

The area where she lived is a trafficking route from North Africa and the Middle East for the illegal trade in drugs - mostly hashish - and also in stolen children.

The village of Sao Bras de Alportel is 30km from the resort of Praia de Luz where British child Maddy McCann disappeared.

Her family said child smuggling was an issue Jacinta was concerned about and might have spoken up about.

"Jacinta may have stumbled across something," brother Cameron said.

"She left a note for someone saying she was leaving and she did not know how things would work out and asked that they forgive her, but the police construed it as a suicide note," he said.

"It wasn't a suicide note - she was scared of something.

"Jacinta may have stumbled across something."

That was one year after Madeleine disappeared.

Sorry Maria but I am not convinced that "suicide by Police" does exist in the UK. It is most assuredly not a well known "phenomena" as it is in Portugal for example. I would want to know a lot more detail about the particular case you mention.

It was back in 1987/88, I don't recall the name of the girl. I'm not a liar, it DID happen. I was there, I know that it took the family some hard time to demonstrate the ridicule of the situation: someone tying her hands with rope BEHIND her back.

I'm not trying to attack any police force or clearing my country's. It most certainly is very disturbing, and yes, some officers, if they can, they will 'solve' crimes the easy way. You have another good example in Madeleine's case.

On the reverse, what I am trying to do is to emphasize and call people's attention to very disturbing facts surrounding this death and even including the possible victim's interest on Madeleine's fate.

I never accused you of being a liar Maria. I just feel that drawing comparisons between the UK Police force and the Portugese Police is confusing the issue and is IMO rather pointless. We all are aware that most countries in this world have some measure of corruption within their Police and Judicial service but it is a question of a much wider issue of politics and democracy that is at stake here.

it is a question of a much wider issue of politics and democracy that is at stake here.

Is it? In that case it is me who is in the wrong place. I'm not here to discuss that with you, at least not now and certainly not in these terms. I'm sorry.

I copied the link and the quote into another thread (Media Statements I believe) so that the bits that IMHO are the important ones re Madeleine are the centre of the news.

If our coroner determined that Jacinta was murdered, then she was murdered.

I dont agree that this is about politics or democracy, it is about police incompetence and/or corruption, just as it was with the McCann case and with other cases discussed on here.

Just why was Jacinta's murder treated as a suicide and evidence of murder disregarded. Who did she associate with? Was she 'friends' with someone that the police would rather no one know about. It doesnt make any sense otherwise because it is quite obvious she was murdered, so why no investigation.

I have a read a few articles on Jacinta and Im not even sure why she was living in Portual. Its a pity that the AFP (Australian Federal Police) are not taking up this case, as they did the Brit Lapthorne case in Croatia, although admittedly, that got no where, although I believe that AFP know who killed her, they just cant prove it. The AFP at a minimum should be requesting the full file from Portugal, and assisting the family with those damn translations.

Well I hope they get answers from the PT police.....and get involved.....unlike our Government

The case itself appears to be about a woman who may have known too much for her own good about drug trafficking and/or child smuggling in this particular part of Portugal, coincidentally very close to PDL, and was possibly - or IMO probably- murdered because of this.

The way in which the case has been handled in Portugal I feel is a separate issue which serves yet again to highlight the lack of accountability and corruption within the PJ but which IMO cannot be viewed independently from the political powers that be in Portugal.

It is a shocking case and I fervently hope the family gets enough financial and legal support to keep on with their own investigations.

I'd like to know exactly what she told her family when she started to get worried.

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/es/viewer.aspx

Interesting letters home. Can´t print off the little one. Anyone?
Just odd behaviour.

Sorry it doesn´t come up. I´ll try again.

http://www.feedage.com/feeds/1749648/sunday-herald-sun

If this works click on bottom right where you see a jacinta insert. If not try Google.

It worked...thankyou.

whenever I read that governments are "doing nothing" to help as in this case I can´t help thinking that the opposite may be true and they are indeed investigating, but very discreetly. Let´s hope so. Something is very wrong here and it happened 2 years ago......

Did cross my mind as to why this has become news....as you say it happened 2 years ago...odd.

From JATYK...using your link Rosemary. Unfortunately Jacinta's letter hasn't come over here it would not copy for me.


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I followed a link on J4:

https://justice4mccannfam.forumotion.com/poli....10-15.htm#39085

and ended up here:

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

where Jacinta's last letter can be seen:

Jacinta Rees wanted a fresh start. Instead, she died brutally on a stormy night


THE final letters written by Jacinta Rees to her family paint a picture of a scared woman who was losing control of her life. thing. Who knows, we may have spoken to the person who killed her.’’


That is not the letter of someone suicidal to me; I would say she had something on her mind she felt she could not tell her family about, and needed to get away from Portugal.
On the same page:

Last message: Jacinta’s final letters home to her family.
Cameron said he had received anonymously in the mail some of Jacinta’s personal papers, including pictures of his two sons.
‘‘That was a little disturbing and frightening,’’ he said.
Jacinta had been living in Portugal for several years after travelling in Europe. She was in her 40s, beautiful and had worked as model i n Europe before settling in The Algarve, Mr Rees said.
She moved there after meeting a South African man who ran a landscaping business and went to live with him.
‘‘She was sort of an astral person. She was ethereal, she loved everyone and every thing. Jacinta never criticised anyone — she didn’t have a nasty bone in her body,’’ Mr Rees said.
‘‘I’m reserved, but she was outgoing. You could sit and really talk to her — she was really interested in what people had to say.
‘‘She was a searcher who was always looking to be loved. She had a good heart.’’
More recently, she had made a living as a masseuse and herbalist for wealthy expatriates, tourists and friends.
She made some money on the side supplying peri-peri sauce to a boutique supermarket and she spent a lot of her time at home painting and writing poetry.

More oddness - why were the documents sent anonymously?
And - from that description of Jacinta, she was not someone who would destroy herself by taking an axe to herself.
Four times.

ETA headline of story.
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If that was the letter, can someone please explain to me how it could be construed as a 'suicide note'?

Even with imagination at the fullest possible stretch, and reading so far between the lines that they disappear, I cannot even come close.

Anyone?

Please?


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http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

Algarve harbours secrets

HAD Jacinta Rees ever felt the tug of homesickness during her 25 years in Europe, she would have found a cure in the Algarve.
With its bright sun, blue skies, clean beaches and eucalypt bushland, the southwest region of Portugal bears an uncanny resemblance to Australia.
Here Jacinta would have felt most at home. The sea is warm, the locals are friendly and the tourists are wealthy.
The mostly English, Dutch, Germans and Americans visitors come for three reasons: sun, golf and horse riding. But mainly it is the golf.
More than 30 lush golf courses hug the coast.
Mansions and luxury resorts sit on 150km of beach.
But as one Algarve local says: ‘‘It’s not just lovely people living in the lovely sunshine.’’
The area is still scared from the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in the resort town of Praia da Luz.
But travel about 30km from the coast into the dry hills and the atmosphere of luxury holidaying vanishes.
That is where European expats who cannot afford property by the sea end up on small farms.
It is where secrets are hidden and dodgy dealings unfold. It is where Jacinta lived.
Her home was a small twobedroom cottage tucked behind a big villa on a hillside in the Corgas Bravas area, about 10 minutes drive from the tiny hamlet of Alportel.
Livelihoods are limited in the region. Stripping bark from cork trees was the main form of income, with olives and honey.
Now the farms are folding as Portuguese realise more money can be made working at resorts.
A growing wave of expats in their early 40s have left the cold, rain and high taxes of Europe to spend their days renovating farmhouses and growing vegetables in the hills.
The region is divided roughly into 30 per cent English and 40 per cent Dutch and German. The rest are Portuguese and some South Africans. Moroccans, Russians and Brazilians work citrus farms.
The area is ripe for fraud, locals warned, with tradesmen duping expats into buying nonexistent heating systems or builders using dodgymaterials.
‘‘A lot of people are on the run in the hills, but mainly it’s from the taxman,’’ one said.
There is little in terms of industry but drugs are the unspoken reality.
The Algarve hills have long been used as a transport route from North Africa to Europe.
The 300-year-old brick ruins of former fig and olive stores are scattered through the hills and are rumoured to be used as temporary drug holdings.
Jacinta’s cottage sits on a dirt road leading into the hills and is surrounded by ruins.
A local, who asked not to be named, said his father had discovered drug dens in the ruins at Corgas Bravas.
‘‘We have it all come through here — heroin, hashish — there are people here who go to sleep poor and wake up rich,’’ he said.
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That's the area where the McCann detectives have speculated the answer to Madeleine's abduction may be found, isn't it?

The area Morais and others deny exists.

ETA link to news site:

http://www.feedage.com/feeds/1749648/sunday-herald-sun

Many thanks to rosemary from J4 for posting this.
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In case of harrassment from vigilantes, contact:


Harlow Police Station - Harlow

The High, Harlow, CM20 1HG
Tel: 0300 333 4444

Portugal´s Attorney General has reviewed the case and stated that there was no evidence to suggest that the McCanns were anything other than


Read more: http://justathoughtyouknow.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=guests&action=display&thread=684&page=10#ixzz13m5QnklR

Catkins wrote:Did cross my mind as to why this has become news....as you say it happened 2 years ago...odd.

I think it has taken that long for Australia and the family to get any information to work on.

I don´t think there is any further doubt in my mind about this and other cases in Portugal anymore. If it looks suspicious and it endangers their tourism then the official party line from government officials and the PJ is "it was an accident or suicide". So from now on folks don´t believe a word they say. They treat us all like mushrooms folks.