The funeral of 72-year-old Brenda Davidson will be held on Thursday, 5 February, at the cemetery in Mexilhoeira Grande, Portimão, at 11.15am.
Portuguese police searched Ms. Davidson’s villa in the sleepy countryside hamlet of Alcalar, Portimão, on 6 January after national authorities were contacted by their British counterparts, who had been alerted by the woman’s son in the UK as she had not been seen or heard from for some time.
Earlier this month the British Embassy in Portugal confirmed “the case of a British national reported as missing in the Algarve, Portugal since December 2014.”
Shortly after arriving at the property on 6 January, officers discovered the body of Ms. Davidson’s in the garden of the villa, concealed with cement.
Following the horrific find police detained her partner, Nigel Jackson, 59, in a situation of ‘in flagrante delicto’, according to the Attorney General’s office. He is said to have confessed to burying the body but allegedly claimed Ms. Davidson had committed suicide.
Jackson was remanded in custody by a judge following an initial hearing at Portimão court earlier this month and is being held at a facility in the Algarve pending trial.
“At issue is the verification of facts that could integrate the practice of qualified homicide and the crime of concealing a body”, the Attorney General’s office explained.
The police investigation into the case is nearing completion.
In the wake of the news, which sent shockwaves across the Algarve and made international headlines, Ms. Davidson’s two dogs were taken in by the Sesimbra-based Cantinho da Milu shelter, from where one had been adopted by the tragic victim in August last year. Hopes are that the animals will soon be adopted.
Describing Ms. Davidson as “such a lovely person”, a spokesperson for the association said the dogs – a medium-size Labrador-cross named Coco Chanel and a 15kg street-dog called Quim – had had “wonderful lives” and had been “spoiled to bits” by their owner, but are now in need of loving new homes as “they are not used to being in this kind of environment”.