GUILTY PORTUGAL - Valentina Fonseca, 9, found deceased, Peniche, 7 May 2020 *father, stepmother arrested*

[Lusitana]

Valentina Fonseca, 9, went missing from her father's home in the early hours of May 7, between 1:30 and 8 AM. She was last seen at around 1:30 AM and was reported missing at 8:30 AM. The family went to bed at 11 PM, Valentina's father woke up at around 1:30 AM and, passing by his daughter's bedroom, tucked in her blankets. He realized she was missing when he went to wake her up at 8 AM.
Her parents are separated but have joint custody. She was living with her father and her stepmother at the time of her disappearance.
A neighbor reported that she noticed a suspicious red vehicle parked on the street at around 1:30 AM. She noticed the vehicle because it didn't belong to any of the neighbors and wasn't usually parked there. It was also reported that the stepmother forgot to lock the home's door on the night Valentina went missing.
Valentina was wearing her pajamas, a blue jacket that her father eventually noticed that was missing, and white slippers.
This is not the first time the 9-year-old went missing. She "ran away" last year around Easter time but was quickly found safe.

PJ investiga desaparecimento de criança de nove anos em Peniche. Carrinha vermelha levanta suspeitas / LE investigates the disappearance of a 9-year-old child in Peniche. Red van raises suspicion

GNR procura criança de nove anos desaparecida em Peniche / LE looks for missing nine-year-old child in Peniche

 

[Lusitana]

Timeline for Valentina's disappearance:

• May 6, 2020
  11 PM - Valentina and her family went to bed.
  
  
• May 7, 2020
  1:30 AM - Valentina's father wakes up, passes by Valentina's bedroom and tucks her blankets
  8 AM - Valentina's father goes to her bedroom to wake her up and realizes she's missing
  8:30 AM - Valentina is reported missing to the local LE

 

[Anirtak]

Abducted from her bed....... Quite rare, not impossible but usually not probable.

 

[Lusitana]

Polícia Judiciária (PJ is the national criminal investigation police agency in Portugal, and focus in fighting serious crimes, including homicides, kidnapping, organized crime, terrorism, illegal drug trade, corruption, cybercrime and financial crime) and Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR is the national gendarmerie force of Portugal, its members are military personnel) seem to be working together. The local firefighters participated in the searches.
32 operatives supported by 11 GNR vehicles and firefighters spent the whole day searching for the child on May 7 and suspended the searches at 00:27 AM. In addition to the 32 LE members, 5 dogs were used in the searches.
The searches to find the missing 9-year-old were resumed at about 7 AM today, May 8.

Polícia Judiciária at Valentina's home, where she went missing:

The local firefighters searching for Valentina:

Guarda Nacional Republicana operating a drone in the search efforts:

Search efforts in the water:

Menina de nove anos desaparece em Peniche / Nine-year-old little girl disappears in Peniche
40+ pictures at the link, incluing pictures of the father outside of the home.

 

[Fleur-de-lis]

Abducted from her bed....... Quite rare, not impossible but usually not probable.

True. But it does happen. It makes it hard to help sleuth when there are also co-occurring markers of what I'll term "concerning coincidences" and "custody concerns." Not accusing anyone of anything. I was way off on the Heidi Broussard case recently.

 

[Lusitana]

The mother was interviewed by LE. I believe this is the normal proceeding and the father and the stepmother were most likely interviewed very early on once she was reported missing.
Two family members reported that some of the family members fear Valentina left the house out of jealousy, because her father and her stepmother recently had a baby. On the other hand, it was also reported, that the child was very afraid of the dark, which makes the theory of her leaving the home in the middle of the night alone very unlikely.

PJ investiga desaparecimento de criança de nove anos em Peniche. Carrinha vermelha levanta suspeitas / LE investigates the disappearance of a 9-year-old child in Peniche. Red van raises suspicion

 

[Lusitana]

True. But it does happen. It makes it hard to help sleuth when there are also co-occurring markers of what I'll term "concerning coincidences" and "custody concerns." Not accusing anyone of anything. I was way off on the Heidi Broussard case recently.

I don't believe there are any custody concerns here, her parents have shared custody. She goes back and forth and spends time at both mom's house and dad's house. No reported tension between the parents, apparently the custody arrangements are pretty civil and there is no mommy-daddy drama regarding Valentina.

Valentina Fonseca's parents are separeted, and she lives under shared custody. She was at her father's home, whom believes she left the house on her own, according to the GNR commander. According to the girl's uncle, "this is not the first time she has left home", it can be read in a Facebook post where he shared a photo of Valentina.

GNR procura criança de nove anos desaparecida em Peniche / LE looks for missing nine-year-old child in Peniche

 

[Fleur-de-lis]

I don't believe there are any custody concerns here, her parents have shared custody. She goes back and forth and spends time at both mom's house and dad's house. No reported tension between the parents, apparently the custody arrangements are pretty civil and there is no mommy-daddy drama regarding Valentina.



GNR procura criança de nove anos desaparecida em Peniche / LE looks for missing nine-year-old child in Peniche

Divorce and shared custody = stress, IMHO. Whether admitted or not, in my experience only.

 

[Lusitana]

Abducted from her bed....... Quite rare, not impossible but usually not probable.

Very rare. Missing children's cases are very rare in Portugal. Whenever a child goes missing, recovery is very quick. Not many cases (if any) of children this young going missing, it's usually teenagers mad at their parents.
I am not accusing anyone of anything, but this case reminds me of poor Joana Cipriano, 8, who was killed by her mother and her uncle because she most likely caught them having incestuous sex.
There are very odd coincidences regarding Valentina's case... The father randomly waking up 2 hours before the whole family went to be, passing by her bedroom and not only seeing her sleeping, but also tucking in her blankets. And the fact the stepmother apparently forgot to lock the door that night. And then, the family statements also worry me. The father has been talking about how Valentina is a sleepwalker, but other family members say that she is afraid of the dark. The father also says her jacket is missing, but I don't believe a 9-year-old running away wearing her pajamas and slippers would even care to take a jacket. If she was going to bring the jacket with her, why not change her clothes and shoes? Very strange case.
LE was very quick to start investigating the home, bringing dogs and everything. I have a bad feeling about this one.

 

[Anirtak]

True. But it does happen. It makes it hard to help sleuth when there are also co-occurring markers of what I'll term "concerning coincidences" and "custody concerns." Not accusing anyone of anything. I was way off on the Heidi Broussard case recently.

Agree. I'm just doing the math. How many reported cases of abductions from their bed were actually taken from their bed versus something nefarious. No accusations here, just doing the math and probabilities.

 

[Lusitana]

Divorce and shared custody = stress, IMHO. Whether admitted or not, in my experience only.

Oh yeah, for sure. Just sharing that it has been reported that doesn't seem to be the case here. Could be a case of a child that doesn't really enjoy going to dad's house and runs away.

 

[Anirtak]

Very rare. Missing children's cases are very rare in Portugal. Whenever a child goes missing, recovery is very quick. Not many cases (if any) of children this young going missing, it's usually teenagers mad at their parents.
I am not accusing anyone of anything, but this case reminds me of poor Joana Cipriano, 8, who was killed by her mother and her uncle because she most likely caught them having incestuous sex.
There are very odd coincidences regarding Valentina's case... The father randomly waking up 2 hours before the whole family went to be, passing by her bedroom and not only seeing her sleeping, but also tucking in her blankets. And the fact the stepmother apparently forgot to lock the door that night. And then, the family statements also worry me. The father has been talking about how Valentina is a sleepwalker, but other family members say that she is afraid of the dark. The father also says her jacket is missing, but I don't believe a 9-year-old running away wearing her pajamas and slippers would even care to take a jacket. If she was going to bring the jacket with her, why not change her clothes and shoes? Very strange case.
LE was very quick to start investigating the home, bringing dogs and everything. I have a bad feeling about this one.

I have a bad feeling about it as well. Due to the details of being tucked in. That narrows the time of possible abduction considerably also weird to have that much detail........tucked in, door unlocked, sleep walking, took her jacket, afraid of the dark. etc etc.

 

[Lusitana]

Agree. I'm just doing the math. How many reported cases of abductions from their bed were actually taken from their bed versus something nefarious. No accusations here, just doing the math and probabilities.

The only other abducted from the bed case in Portugal was Madeleine McCann and we all now how that most likely didn't happen that way. In general, real abducted from bed cases are very rare. The father seems to believe she left on her own and wasn't abducted.

 

[Anirtak]

I'm not at all familiar with how many cases of missing/abducted children happen in Portugal. Possibly comparing apples to oranges. MOO

 

[Anirtak]

The only other abducted from the bed case in Portugal was Madeleine McCann and we all now how that most likely didn't happen that way. In general, real abducted from bed cases are very rare. The father seems to believe she left on her own and wasn't abducted.

That was the case I was thinking of but I didn't follow it at the time. I heard about it later.

 

[Lusitana]

I have a bad feeling about it as well. Due to the details of being tucked in. That narrows the time of possible abduction considerably also weird to have that much detail........tucked in, door unlocked, sleep walking, took her jacket, afraid of the dark. etc etc.

Right? Such a coincidence that the door is left unlocked right on the night that this child would either be abducted or run away. At 9 I would believe she would be perfectly capable to unlock the door, and would probably know where the keys are usually placed so, the "forgot to lock the door" narrative isn't really crucial for a 9-year-old run away case. It's weird.

 

[Lusitana]

I'm not at all familiar with how many cases of missing/abducted children happen in Portugal. Possibly comparing apples to oranges. MOO

We have 4 missing children open cases right now, none of them are recent. It's a small country, 10,28 million people so this type of stuff doesn't happen everyday or super often like it happens in bigger, more populated countries. Child abuse cases are also quite rare.

 

[Anirtak]

Right? Such a coincidence that the door is left unlocked right on the night that this child would either be abducted or run away. At 9 I would believe she would be perfectly capable to unlock the door, and would probably know where the keys are usually placed so, the "forgot to lock the door" narrative isn't really crucial for a 9-year-old run away case. It's weird.

Exactly what I thought, an unnecessary detail. She's quite old enough to unlock it so why explain that it was already unlocked? Either you think she put her jacket on while sleep walking and left or you think someone took her. Why add the unnecessary........

 

[Anirtak]

I've never followed a missing child case or any crime in Portugal so this will be a learning experiene on how they handle things for me.

 

[Lusitana]

Exactly what I thought, an unnecessary detail. She's quite old enough to unlock it so why explain that it was already unlocked? Either you think she put her jacket on while sleep walking and left or you think someone took her. Why add the unnecessary........

I don't really know how sleepwalking works, but how common would that be for a sleepwalker to manage to put a jacket and slippers on, open the door, close the door and leave the home without waking up anyone? Also, why would she even remember that she didn't lock the door, if they believe she left on her own, why not assume that she was the one who unlocked it as she was leaving?

I've never followed a missing child case or any crime in Portugal so this will be a learning experiene on how they handle things for me.

So far, it looks like they're working really hard to find this kid. Lots of stuff being put to work here, drones, boats, four wheelers, two LE agencies, firefighters, dogs... Mom was already interviewed. They're not playing, let's see how this ends though.