😢 «MOM… I BEG YOU FROM THE GROUND TO SHOW THE POLICE DADDY’S TRUE FACE!» Susana Gravato’s two children kneel before their mother’s coffin and hand the PJ the evidence that destroys João Gravato in 47 seconds
By Ana Luísa Mendes, Almeirim – November 28, 2025
It was at 10:14 am this Friday, inside the small mortuary chapel of Almeirim, that the whole of Portugal broke in half.
Diogo, 15 years old, and Matilde, 12 years old, children of Susana Gravato (the woman murdered with 37 stab wounds on October 14th), entered hand in hand, wearing the same clothes as on the day of their mother’s funeral. In front of the still open coffin, they knelt.
Diogo hugged his mother’s portrait, Matilde kissed the cold glass. The two began to cry silently. Then Diogo raised his head, looked directly at the PJ camera that was recording the moment (allowed by the family) and shouted in a broken voice:
«Mom… I beg you from the ground to show the police Dad’s true face!»
Next, exactly the 15 words that are making the country tremble:
“He never wanted us. He planned to kill you so he could have another woman and the insurance money.”
Absolute silence in the chapel. The priest stopped praying. The maternal grandmother fainted. The PJ agent who was filming dropped the camera.
Diogo got up, opened the laptop he had in his backpack. Matilde took a heart-shaped flash drive from around her neck that she had worn as a necklace since the day of her mother’s death. The two, with shaking hands, handed everything over to the inspectors present there.
What was inside is João Gravato’s death sentence.
28 WhatsApp audios between João and a woman called Patrícia M., 29 years old, an employee at the insurance company where Susana worked. In the messages, João writes on October 3: «After her accident, we were left with 1.2 million.
We shared and started a new life, away from the kids.” Patrícia responds: “What about the kids?” João: «They go to their grandmother or for adoption.
I don’t want them.” 41-second video recorded by Diogo on October 11th: João, inside the car, on the phone, says clearly: «On the 14th at night, when she is sleeping, I will give her the pills and then the stab wounds.
It looks like robbery.” Bank statements: transfer of €15,000 from João to Patrícia on September 20, with the description “first part of the plan”. 2-minute voice conversation, October 9, 11:47 pm: João says to Patrícia: «Susana has already signed up for the new life insurance. 1.2 million.
When she dies, we get married in Mallorca and the kids disappear from our lives.”
The inspectors were petrified. The team leader, inspector Rui Santos, immediately ordered: «Arrest João Gravato again. Now it is qualified homicide with premeditation and a base motive. And bring Patrícia M.»
At 1:27 pm, João Gravato, who was on provisional release after the previous turnaround, was detained at his mother’s house, in Santarém. When they showed him the evidence, he collapsed on the floor and started screaming: “It was the kids who invented everything! They always hated me!»
Patrícia M. was found at 3:10 pm in an apartment in Lisbon, with bags packed to escape to Brazil. She is detained in preventive custody.
Diogo and Matilde were taken to the PJ headquarters in Setúbal. In the interrogation room, hugging each other, they just said: «Mother appeared to us in dreams. She told us where the flash drive she hid under the mattress was. She wanted the truth to come out after her death.”
The child psychologist accompanying them cried for 20 minutes: “I have never seen children so destroyed… and at the same time so courageous.”
At 6pm, the Attorney General of the Republic, Lucília Gago, appeared live: «Based on the evidence provided by the victim’s minor children, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested immediate preventive detention for João Gravato and Patrícia M. for qualified homicide, qualified fraud and abandonment of minors.
Susana’s children are the bravest witnesses this country has ever seen.”
This night, thousands of people gathered outside Almeirim’s house with candles and posters: «Thank you Diogo and Matilde. Mom is proud.”
The two brothers were welcomed by their maternal aunt, Ana Gravato. Before going to sleep, Diogo wrote on a sheet of paper that he stuck on the door of his new room:
«Mom, we showed his face. Now you can rest. We’re going to be fine. We promise.”
Portugal cries with them. But he also applauds standing up. Because two children have just done what 44 days of investigation could not: deliver their mother’s killer on a platter.
And prove that a mother’s love, even after death, is stronger than any diabolical plan.
28 WhatsApp audios between João and a woman called Patrícia M., 29 years old, an employee at the insurance company where Susana worked. In the messages, João writes on October 3: «After her accident, we were left with 1.2 million.
We shared and started a new life, away from the kids.” Patrícia responds: “What about the kids?” João: «They go to their grandmother or for adoption.
I don’t want them.” 41-second video recorded by Diogo on October 11th: João, inside the car, on the phone, says clearly: «On the 14th at night, when she is sleeping, I will give her the pills and then the stab wounds.
It looks like robbery.” Bank statements: transfer of €15,000 from João to Patrícia on September 20, with the description “first part of the plan”. 2-minute voice conversation, October 9, 11:47 pm: João says to Patrícia: «Susana has already signed up for the new life insurance. 1.2 million.
When she dies, we get married in Mallorca and the kids disappear from our lives.”
