Tatiana Mestre lived in Loulé and was a waitress in the same restaurant as her mother. He disappeared on August 26, 2018, at the time he was 29 years old and had two children, aged six and nine. After dinner, Tatiana went out alone to meet a friend.
In the morning, Tatiana’s partner informed Antónia that her daughter had not slept at home. The car that Tatiana was driving was found on the Arrochela farm, a deserted area, associated with prostitution and drug use, on the outskirts of Quarteira.
The vehicle was partially on fire. In the back seat, Tatiana’s corpse also had burns, hands tied behind her back and a sweater over her head. She died of asphyxiation.
Seven years later, the Faro court is trying the murder of another woman. Josielly Rodrigues appeared dead and the body was burned and dumped in a ravine, in Santana da Serra. The suspect is José Mascarenhas, the man who in 2019 was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the murder of Tatiana Mestre, but who months later would end up being released by order of the Évora Court of Appeal.
On the day he returned to Faro to sit in the dock for Josielly’s death, on October 8, the same court received from the Public Prosecutor’s Office the indictment of a third case of homicide. Mascarenhas is identified as the author of the murder of Sandra Andrade, a TVDE driver, who died in 2023.
The man who had the nickname Kenny is now known as the “serial killer” of the Algarve and is accused of the murders of Josielly and Sandra. José Mascarenhas knew the three women.
He was part of Tatiana’s group of friends, with whom he had some sexual encounters. He was a client of the young Brazilian woman who was involved in prostitution and used the services of Sandra Andrade’s TVDE driver, who disappeared around six months after Josielly’s murder.
He received a call from José Mascarenhas on June 24, 2023, early in the morning. It was customary for Kenny to call his 32-year-old wife when he needed transportation. Sandra responded to this service, but did not pick up the client she had scheduled for about an hour later. The body was found weeks later, in a suitcase, hidden under the stones of a wall, in a deserted area, close to the former home of the man now accused of this death.
According to the prosecution, Sandra was taken there already dead. The murder took place at the home of the defendant’s parents, who had traveled to Cape Verde. The man convinced the driver to enter the room and, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, used force to restrain her, covering her mouth with thick tape and asphyxiating her after managing to extract the ATM codes from her. He waited until dawn to leave the house and transport Sandra’s body in a suitcase to Caminho da Rascova, in Almancil.
Sandra Andrade’s case has not yet begun to be judged. The defendant will have to justify more than 2,000 euros in ATM withdrawals he made with the victim’s cards as well as the fact that the victim’s vehicle was found 500 meters from the house of Kenny’s then girlfriend, in Olhão.
The ruling on the murder of Tatiana Mestre states that there is no history of violence in Kenny’s family, a group of nine people, born in Cape Verde, and that the family environment was structured and cohesive.
In court, José Mascarenhas admitted that he had sexual encounters with Tatiana, including on the land and in the car where the body was found. A resident in the area confirms that the vehicle was often seen there.
The investigation suggests that the death occurred in the early hours of August 27, 2018. Kenny says that the last time he was with Tatiana was the day before, at a time when the victim’s former partner was in Spain.
Traces of the defendant’s DNA found at the scene and on the corpse allowed the conviction in the first trial, but the Évora Court of Appeal had doubts. There was a joint, for example, outside the car, with markers of Tatiana and Kenny, but the autopsy showed that the victim did not have cannabinoids in his blood. Therefore, it would not have been smoked on the night of the murder.
There were other traces, from other individuals, that were not analyzed or identified, including two hairs in the victim’s hands – which were neither hers nor the defendant’s. With a sum of doubts, the relationship applied the principle of deciding in favor of the defendant.
In the retrial of Josielly’s case, another woman testified against Kenny. She says that years before, they were at her house and the defendant attacked her out of nowhere. Without any discussion, he attacked her and tried to suffocate her. The son woke up and avoided the worst.
José Mascarenhas’ father and sister were called to court in the case of the dead Brazilian woman, but chose not to make a statement.
The body of the young woman, who had arrived in Portugal nine months earlier, was found weeks after she disappeared. He was thrown into a 15-meter cliff, not far from Santana da Serra. It was in an advanced state of decomposition and partially eaten by animals. According to the autopsy, Josiely died of asphyxiation.
Despite being nicknamed the Algarve’s “serial killer” and the two new murder cases to which he will now have to answer, José Mascarenhas, a former gardener, is being held in the Linhó prison in a case for drug trafficking.
The trial of José Mascarenhas, in the context of Josiell’s death, takes place with a jury trial. There is a new session scheduled for October 24th, in Faro.