His former coworker at Sapo paints a different picture of the suspect (translated):
“Cláudio Valente? How?? Wow, he was a sweetheart”
...
She begins by saying that she liked Cláudio very much, with whom she worked "twice, the first time starting in 2001, for about five or six years, and then again later. Because he left and then came back. He was a developer, that is, he wrote the code to program SAPO's services."
...
She often asked developers to explain technical things she didn't understand at all, and that Cláudio always had the patience to do so. “He was absolutely brilliant, with extraordinary intelligence, but very kind and extraordinarily approachable. He was very patient and explained things. He was a very good person. A sweetheart, truly. And everyone who worked with him at Sapo says that, that he was approachable and kind.”
...
Furthermore, she recalls, "he had a very sharp sense of humor."
She adds that nobody knew anything about his private life. He didn't socialize with his coworkers.
“Alguém sabe explicar? Quem é que esteve com ele pela última vez?”A pergunta correu no grupo de Whatsapp de colegas e ex-colegas do Portal SAPO, esta manhã, ant
www.dn.pt
I don’t believe that “brilliance” (or getting grades better that Nuno) means that much, if anything. You all know Thomas Edison’s quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”, and maybe CV lacked in work ethics.
It fits that CV was the only child. When he went to the university, he probably cut off tight umbilical cord instead of stretching it.
Also, I think that in 2001, he made the right decision to switch over to IT.
Academic career means, not much money, competition, a lot of hard work and dependence on grants. Nuno Loureiro was lucky, with his work, he got MIT professorship, fame and publications. But it is always a risk, and financially, Claudio’s decision in 2001 could have looked sounder. I don’t know what was happening to CV in 2010es, but the real problem could have started with winning that green card lottery. The timing was wrong. The green card kept him in the US for over 6 months of a year, and there were no remote works yet in 2017. So he likely had to quit his job in Portugal. I assume that he planned to get into IT sector in the US, but he was in his 40-es, from another country, and not a team player. But the main issue, the downturn in technical sector, had essentially started with COVID, everywhere. I’d guess that he ended up in the same boat with some programmers but in a new country. And, no connections, no friends, no social network.
So it could have been all to his story. He could have made some nest egg, but “always on the phone”, might indicate some form of ludomania or other compulsive behavior draining out one’s money.
He lived here for several years and did not commit homicidal acts. So, either inability to find a good job and hopelessness or perhaps, a new illness or all of it. And then it goes back to “where did it go wrong?” And he starts finding blame with others.
I hope he can now have a better Christmas than he thought he would, and his life changes for the better.
