In what is the first death on Mindelo’s Laginha beach this year, a jogger who was on the beach during his morning run early this morning around 6.00am, discovered a body in the sea and immediately alerted the National Police and Judicial Police.
The partly decomposed male body was retrieved from the water, only in his underwear and without his eyes and tongue. According to information provided by the rescuers, the man is known as “Nando”, a well known shoeshine trader of the streets. It is understood that Nando was already identified by the rescuers as someone vulnerable and with serious mental health concerns.
The police reports state that the body showed no initial signs of violence and that the body will undergo autopsy to conclude the actual cause of death. The removal of the body by the City Fire Department took place around 9.00am this morning.
One of the lifeguards who took part in the rescue and identified the body as being Nando, said that Nando was a regular visitor to the beach and that his mental illnesses were aware to them. He continued that Nando sometimes suffered from fits and seizures on the beach and had been supported by the lifeguard team.
“Nando, as we know him, would come here, take off all his clothes and bathe naked. He has sometimes been rescued by swimmers during an epileptic fit.” says Rui Spencer, lifeguard.
Discarded clothes were also found nearby that are suspected to belong to the deceased. According to another swimmer, the clothes had been there since Monday morning, 15th April.
The suspicion is that the Nando has been missing since Sunday night, the last day of the Youth Festival. It is suggested that he drowned in the sea and drifted away and that his body returned to the shore this Tuesday morning.
