Brazilian authorities have found two bodies in the Amazon jungle where the English journalist, Dom Phillips, and the indigenous expert, Bruno Pereira, disappeared more than a week ago.
The British ambassador to the United Kingdom has informed Phillips’ family during a call on Monday. “He said they found both bodies,” Phillips’ brother-in-law Paul Sherwood said. “He did not say the location, only that it was in the jungle and that they were tied to a tree and had not yet been identified,” he continued, in a statement collected by the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’.
Personal belongings of both, such as clothing and footwear, had been found yesterday, as confirmed by the Brazilian Police. The objects would have been found very close to the home of Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, the only one detained in the case.
Phillips, 57, a contributor to the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’, and Pereira, 41, an expert with Brazil’s government agency for indigenous affairs (Funai), were traveling by boat through the Javarí Valley region, a remote area in the extreme west of the state of Amazonas, hit by drug trafficking and the presence of illegal miners, loggers and fishermen. They were preparing a report on the threats facing indigenous peoples.
They were last seen on June 5, in the Sao Rafael community, not far from their destination, Atalaia do Norte. Several witnesses said they saw the 41-year-old fisherman Oliveira pass by in a boat at high speed in the same direction as Phillips and Pereira, before he disappeared.
The Federal Police admitted last Wednesday that they did not rule out “any line of investigation”, including homicide.
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