The missing head of a man whose body was discovered on a street in central Lisbon has been handed in to cops.
The victim is reportedly a 34-year-old foreign citizen.
The body was found without its head behind the Lisbon Coliseum (Coliseu dos Recreios), in the heart of the capital city on Wednesday.
A 29-year-old man was reportedly arrested after he handed over the head – which he was carrying wrapped in foil in a backpack – to the São José Hospital on Thursday.
The student reportedly confessed to the murder, admitting to meeting the victim just hours before the violent act.
The engineering student was said to describe the decapitation in detail to the authorities, as well as the details of his mutilations of the victim’s body after he was dead, according to CNN Portugal.
The suspect allegedly used a medium-sized kitchen knife from his house.
The crime occurred in the early hours of the morning on July 30, after the two met and had a disagreement.
The decapitation was said to occur in the middle of the street without witnesses.
‘On the afternoon of July 31, the suspect voluntarily presented himself at a hospital in Lisbon, carrying a human head that he claimed to wish to hand over,’ the Judicial Police said.
‘After the Public Security Police reported this fact, the PJ subjected the suspect to a series of evidentiary procedures, the conclusions of which indicated that he was the perpetrator of the acts.
‘Several objects of evidentiary interest were also seized, including the knife presumed to have been used in the commission of the crime. Evidence was also collected that points to the human head belonging to the victim.’
No evidence was found linking the crime to drug trafficking or consumption. Instead, the underlying motive at this stage appears to be personal.
The student, also a foreign citizen, is suspected of aggravated murder, desecration of a corpse, and possession of a prohibited weapon.
The decapitated corpse was found by police at around 6.45am on Wednesday in Pátio Salema with no head present.
When the suspect arrived at São José Hospital on Thursday with the severed head, he reportedly told staff that the head ‘was related to this situation,’ a source from the PSP’s Lisbon Metropolitan Command told Observador.
More to follow.