Rally champion and wife ‘battered to death at home & bodies dumped in water tank’ before caretaker arrested for ‘murder’

A RETIRED rally champion and his wife have been found dead at their Algarve home. Frenchman Jean-Marie Grenier, 79, and his partner, 62, were allegedly beaten to death with their bodies found dumped in a water tank. Jean-Marie Grenier and his wife were found dead at their Algarve home Credit: Facebook/Jean Marie Grenier Grenier was a retired rally car champion Credit: Facebook/Algarve Automobile Club Cops have arrested a man, named locally as Natalino Cordeiro, who worked as the couple’s live-in caretaker for around seven years. Cordeiro, 45, was reportedly hired after the couple, who worked as entrepreneurs in the healthcare system, suffered a violent robbery. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! Their bodies were found late on Friday at their villa in Odiaxere near the Algarve resort of Lagos. Police are thought to have been tipped off by a friend of the suspect. They said a 45-year-old was arrested on suspicion of committing two crimes of aggravated homicide and desecration of a corpse in Lagos. A statement read: “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. “The motive is unknown, although the suspect was located in possession of a considerable amount of money and valuables believed to belong to the victims. Most read in Motorsport “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 appearance.” Overnight, it emerged he had already been remanded in custody after appearing before a judge yesterday who is now leading an ongoing criminal probe. Grenier is understood to have run an osteopathy clinic from his home. He 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. The racer 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 paid tribute to Jean-Marie while posting a photo of him in race action as it emerged he and his Romanian wife Milena were the victims of the horror crime. Their tribute read: “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.” Comment now