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The Lisbon Ripper · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: The Lisbon Ripper, known in Portuguese as o Estripadour de Lisboa,
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  was an unidentified serial killer responsible for the murders of
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  three prostitutes in Lisbon, Portugal, between nineteen ninety two and
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  nineteen ninety three crimes. The first victim, twenty two year
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  old Maria Valentina, commonly referred to as Tina, was known
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  to frequent the neighborhoods of Avenidas Novas, Avenidas de Fensores
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  de Chaves and Avenida Chinco de Utubro. She was discovered
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  on July thirty first, nineteen ninety two, in a large
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  cabin located in Povoa de Santo Adrial, where she was
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  found lying in a pool of her own blood. The
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  autopsy revealed that she had been strangled, disemboweled, and several
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  of her internal organs had been removed. The second victim,
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  twenty four year old Maria Fernande, was located on January
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  twenty seventh, nineteen ninety three, in a large cabin in
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  Entre Campos, Lisbon, by railway construction workers engaged in work
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  on a nearby bridge. Similar to the first victim, she
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  had been disemboweled and some of her internal organs were missing.
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  The final victim, twenty seven year old Maria Joo, resided
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  in Santo Antonio dos Cavalero's, north of Lisbon and lived alone.
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  She was found on March fifteenth, nineteen ninety three, close
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  to the site where the first victim was discovered, and
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  she was a friend of hers. Like the previous victims,
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  she had been disemboweled, but in her case nearly all
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  of her organs had been removed. All three victims were
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  young brunettes named Maria, reportedly involved in prostitution and drug use,
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  and they were disemboweled with a sharp instrument that was
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  not a knife, potentially a scalpel. Investigations. Upon receiving a
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  report regarding the initial homicide, the Prevention Service of the
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  Homicide Department dispatched members of the Judiciary Police to the scene,
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  where they were taken aback by the sheer brutality of
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  Maria Valentina's murder. The remains were subsequently examined by forensic
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  expert Jose Sombrerero, who stated that in his thirty years
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  of experience and forty thousand autopsies, he had never encountered
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  anything of this nature. The investigation that followed uncovered that
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  the victim, known as Tina since childhood, was either involved
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  in prostitution or struggled with drug addiction. Throughout nineteen ninety two,
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  the authorities received numerous anonymous calls and letters concerning the murder,
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  all of which were investigated but yielded no substantial evidence.
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  On January twenty seventh of the subsequent year, the assailants
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  struck again, claiming the life of Maria Fernande, whose body
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  was discovered by railway workers. A full police brigade was
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  deployed and there was a consensus that the same individual
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  was responsible. The body exhibited similar mutilations, with specific organs
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  removed and found in close proximity to the previous crime scene. Notably,
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  the killer had also severed her breasts within the cabin
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  at Entre Campos. The investigation revealed that, akin to the
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  first victim, Fernande was also a prostitute. The police officially
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  opened the case on January third, nineteen ninety three, following
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  Maria Fernander's death, delving into the backgrounds of both her
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  and Valentina. A team of six officers worked around the
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  clock on the case, occasionally receiving assistance from the Drug
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  Trafficking Department, which provided personnel from its nighttime surveillance unit.
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  Clues connecting various individuals to their past were present between
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  Lisbon and cascaies, yet the information remained informal and insufficient
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  to warrant arrests or even interrogations, lamented coordinator Juan de Sousa.
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  The police were aware that the serial killer or killers
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  would strike again imminently, but they were devoid of any
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  substantial leads to implicate any one. On March fifteenth, the
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  ripper claimed his third victim, Maria Joan. She was mutilated
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  in a manner consistent with Fernanda and Valentina, but in
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  this instance all of her organs had been excised. Similar
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  to the previous victims, she had a history of either
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  prostitution or drug addiction. Nevertheless, the crime scene yielded minimal
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  to no evidence. There was no blood apart from that
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  of the victims, nor were there any hares, footprints, fingerprints,
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  or glove remnants. The police had several suspects in mind,
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  yet lacked the evidence necessary to take action against them.
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  The FBI posits that the perpetrator was affiliated with the
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  Portuguese community in New Bedford, subsequently departing the city to
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  return to Portugal, where he resumed his employment. Shortly thereafter,
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  the Portuguese authorities apprehended a suspect, However, he was quickly
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  released due to insufficient evidence. Notably, the remains of the
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  victims found in Portugal were severely disfigured, in stark contrast
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  to those discovered in New Bedford, which were not. As
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  the two agents eventually returned to the United States, no
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  link could be established, leaving the identity of the assailant unresolved.
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  In two thousand five, the Statute of Limitations regarding the
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  murders of the two additional prostitutes from nineteen ninety was enacted.
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  Even if the murderer is discovered in future, he cannot
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  be tried or imprisoned under the Penal Code of Portugal.
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  The Statute of Limitations expired that