Brazil Police Finds Human Remains In Amazon Rainforest Where British Journalist Vanished

By Abdul Rafay in Heartbreaking On 12th June 2022
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Fears have grown even higher for the safety of a British freelance journalist who vanished in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira vanished last week, but the discovery of "organic material" in the river where they were last seen, as well as blood on a suspect's boat, prompted local police to detain a fisherman on suspicion of illegal possession of restricted ammunition, as well as to investigate whether he was involved in the pair's disappearance.

Image: Paul Sherwood

According to the Daily Mirror, a judge has ordered the suspect, Amarildo da Costa, to be imprisoned for another 30 days while police conduct their investigation.

The judge agreed to hold the fisherman in jail for 30 days, according to Eliesio Morubo, a lawyer for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley, because the case concerned a possible "heinous crime" such as murder and burying bodies.

Image: Paul Sherwood
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The "organic material," along with the blood, is being sent for forensic analysis, according to federal police.

Costa was one of the last individuals to see Phillips and Pereira on Sunday (June 5), when they went missing after visiting the riverside town of Sao Gabriel, according to the cops.

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The Brazilian military has organized search teams in a remote section of the country near Peru, with roughly 150 soldiers being dispatched by riverboats to look for the missing men and interview locals.

In the early days of the search, the Brazilian government was chastised for not doing enough, with football great Pele encouraging President Jair Bolsonaro to speed up the search.

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Pereira frequently clashed with poachers and illegal fishers in the area, and the police continue to target them.

Costa's family and lawyers, however, have disputed that he had anything to do with the men's abduction and that he fished legally on the river.

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Phillips and Pereira were on a reporting mission in the isolated rainforest region along the country's border with Peru and Colombia, which is home to the world's biggest population of uncontacted indigenous people.

Cocaine smuggling groups, as well as illegal loggers, miners, and hunters, have been drawn to the wild and lawless region.

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