Missing head of man decapitated ‘by student he'd just met' in Brit holiday hotspot is handed to cops wrapped in foil
A student stunned medics when he walked into São José Hospital on Thursday afternoon and told them he had a severed human head in his backpack.
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Police were called immediately and confirmed the gruesome find, handing the suspect over to national criminal investigation police, according to Portuguese outlet Correio da Manhã.
The man, reportedly a student of African origin, later confessed to the murder and was arrested.
He faces charges of aggravated homicide and desecration of a corpse.
The suspect had wrapped the head in aluminium foil and stashed it in his bag before going to the hospital, according to investigators.
He reportedly admitted to meeting the victim just hours before the murder.
Police say the motive behind the killing appears to have been trivial.
Early forensic tests suggest the head belongs to the same man whose body was found on Patio Salema on Wednesday.
The victim - said to be an undocumented man of African descent - showed no signs of gunshot wounds or knife injuries to the head.
Police said there is no evidence linking the crime to drugs, either through trafficking or consumption.
The suspect will appear before a criminal judge on Friday.
Decapitated body found lying in street in Brit hols hotspot - with head still missing
Authorities were alerted to a headless body early on Wednesday.
They rushed to the scene and cordoned off the street to carry out their investigation.
Gustavo Silva, a commentator for CNN Portugal, at the time said that this type of crime "occurs in a very specific context".
He issued a warning to the public: "It's macabre and heinous, but people should remain calm."
Criminal psychology expert Carlos Alberto Poiares told news channel Sic Noticias: "One thing is clear: the crime wasn't committed there; the body was dumped there.
"If he had been decapitated there, the scenario would certainly have been different."
Bizarrely, just hours earlier, the body of a woman in her 50s was found in the boot of a car in Costa da Caparica on the outskirts of the capital.
It is believed the woman was getting changed in the boot of the car - given that it had no backseats - and suffered a heart attack.
Lisbon is known as one of the safest European capitals with a very low crime rate.
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