Then, why was the nine-year-old child killed? The thesis that the girl died as a result of an accident was reinforced at the end of the day by the child’s father’s lawyer. To the newspaper Público, Roberto Rosendo guaranteed that “Sandro Bernardo is not a criminal”. “Unfortunately something went wrong at home. He did not want or foresee what happened. And my defense will go there, ”he told the same newspaper. However, at the press conference given on Sunday, the day that Valentina’s body was found, the PJ rejected the hypothesis that she died accidentally.
Regardless of what happened inside the house, at Atouguia da Baleia, at the end of Wednesday, Valentina’s body would only be found on Sunday: it was hidden in a eucalyptus tree about eight kilometers from the residence, in Serra d’El Rei, covered with branches of bushes. It was the father himself who, after being heard three times by the PJ, would end up giving information to the inspectors who took them to the place where the body was. On Sunday afternoon, Sandro Bernardo reconstructed his version of the facts, in which he himself went to the eucalyptus accompanied by the PJ. There, among the grove, he lifted into the air and put branches of a tree on the ground, in imitation of what he would have done in reality, at least in his own – and that suggests that the suspect may have hidden his daughter’s body.
In the reconstitution of the facts also made in that place, later and separated from her husband, Márcia Bernardo, she did not leave the PJ’s car – which, in itself, may be an important detail for the case. The stepmother may have accompanied Sandro to the place, but did not help to hide the body. Instead, he may have waited in the car for his companion to leave the body, about ten meters from the shoulder. Which indicates that the two may have had different roles in the alleged crime.
–
