Manuel Cruz, Portugese Murderer, Spent 16 Years Hiding In Caves

Associated Press

A fugitive murderer spent 16 years hiding in caves around his home village in northern Portugal before he was recaptured looking "like Robinson Crusoe," the police said on Thursday.

Manuel Cruz, 54, had a deep tan and a long beard when he was arrested in the forested hills where he once had been a shepherd, inspector Carlos Gomes said. "He wasn't very strong but he wasn't in very bad shape," said Mr Gomes, who arrested Cruz along with 11 other officers in what police dubbed "Operation Cro-Magnon" on Wednesday.

He "looked like Robinson Crusoe," Mr Gomes said.

Cruz had a guard dog and a gun with him but he didn't fire on the police who approached on foot, according to Mr Gomes. "His initial reaction was very aggressive but he came peacefully once we had him," Mr Gomes said.

Cruz was serving a 10-year sentence for murder when he fled during a weekend furlough in the village in 1993. He was convicted after an argument over goats with a local woman during which Cruz pushed her and she hit her head on the ground, later dying, Ramalho Cruz said.

Cruz had been hiding in caves and hollowed-out banks of earth in "very hilly, very hostile terrain" surrounding Anisso, about 400 km north of Lisbon, Mr Gomes said by telephone.