Retired French champion rally driver and wife found beaten to death at Algarve home

A retired champion rally driver and his wife have been found murdered at their Algarve home.

Frenchman Jean-Marie Grenier and his partner were beaten to death and their bodies dumped in a water tank.

The 79-year-old osteopath was a former winner of the Quercy Rally, a historic annual car racing competition held in France’s Lot department which is part of the French Rally Cup.

He finished first in the 1976 event when it was created and was still known as the Ronde du Quercy in an Alpine-Renault A310 and came second the following year.

French rally legend Didier Auriol, his country’s first World Rally Champion in 1994, has also been among previous winners of the race.

The Algarve Automobile Club said in a tribute yesterday to Jean-Marie alongside a photo of him in race action as it emerged he and his Romanian wife Milena were the victims of the horror crime: “The Algarve Automobile Club hereby extends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Jean-Marie Grenier, a French driver who had been based in the Algarve for many years.

“He was one of the first competitors to bring life to the Southern Regional Rally Trophy, being one of the drivers to contest its inaugural season in 1998 with a Citroen CX like the one in the photo.”

The murdered couple’s bodies were found late on Friday at their villa in Odiaxere near the Algarve resort of Lagos.

Police have confirmed they have arrested a man identified by local press as 45-year-old Brazilian Natalino Cordeiro who worked as their live-in caretaker and is said to have been with them for around seven years. He was reportedly hired after the couple suffered a violent robbery.

Cops are thought to have been tipped off by a friend of the suspect after he allegedly confessed to him what had happened.

Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria police force said in a statement yesterday, referencing another police organisation called the GNR: “The Portimao Criminal Investigation Department of the Policia Judiciaria, with the close collaboration of the Lagos GNR, arrested a 45-year-old foreign national early this morning on suspicion of committing two crimes of aggravated homicide and desecration of a corpse in Lagos.

“The victims were a foreign couple, a man aged 79 and a woman aged 62 who were entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector.

“They had been living in Portugal for several years and the suspect worked as a caretaker for them.

“Initially, the victims are believed to have been assaulted with a blunt object, which caused them serious injuries resulting in their deaths.

“Immediately afterwards, the suspect dragged the victims inside a water cistern located on the property, with the aim of hiding the bodies, even attempting to decompose them with chemical products.

“So far, the motive for the crime is unknown, although when the suspect was located in the vicinity of the couple’s home by the Lagos GNR, he was in possession of a considerable amount of money and valuables believed to belong to the victims.

“The removal of the bodies, due to the location where they had been concealed and their condition, required a lengthy and complex operation carried out with the assistance of the Lagos Fire Department.

“The detainee, with no known criminal record, will be brought before a judge for a first court quiz.”

Overnight it emerged he had already been remanded in custody after appearing before a judge on Saturday who is now leading an ongoing criminal probe.

Mr Grenier is understood to have run an osteopathy clinic from his home.

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