PJ police launched an investigation after the 82-year-old woman was found dead in a house in Faro on Sunday. Newspaper Correio da Manhã reported the elderly woman was believed to be a widow who lived alone in a house in the city’s downtown area.
Her body was discovered on Sunday morning, after police were called to the property following reports a door looked as if it had been broken down.
Police were understood to be probing whether the woman was the victim of a violent robbery.
Her body was sent for autopsy to determine the cause of death.
On Monday a 26-year-old man was arrested in connection with the robbery.
Authorities explained the door had been forced open and the elderly woman had been violently manhandled and beaten to death and her belongings stolen.
The suspect was arrested in Olhão on Monday night and has a criminal record.
In a statement, the PJ said the man was “strongly suspected of being responsible for two other robberies” carried out on elderly women, one on 22 October in Olhão, which targeted a 95-year-old woman, and one in Faro in which the victim was a 91-year-old woman.
Both victims required hospital treatment, with the older of the two having been transferred to a hospital in Lisbon.