Brazilian authorities said they have found a backpack and personal effects of a British journalist and an indigenous expert who disappeared in the Amazon last week, with the Briton’s mother-in-law saying she has lost hope that they will emerge alive.
Fears have been mounting over the fate of Dom Phillips, 57, a veteran contributor to the Guardian, and 41-year-old Bruno Pereira, an expert with the Brazilian National Indian Foundation, since they disappeared on June 5 after receiving threats during a research trip to Brazil’s Javari Valley.
After a slow start, the Brazilian federal police and the army have intensified the search for the two men, who were last seen in the town of Sao Gabriel, not far from their destination, Atalaia do Norte.
Photo: AP
“Objects belonging to the two missing persons have been found: a health card, black pants, a black sandal and a pair of boots belonging to Bruno Pereira, and a pair of boots and a backpack belonging to Dom Phillips containing personal clothing,” the Federal Police in Amazonas State said on Sunday in a statement.
The Amazonas Fire Department had previously told reporters that personal effects possibly belonging to the missing men had been found “near the house” of Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, the only person arrested so far in the case and who witnesses say pursued the men upriver.
Police said search teams on Sunday covered about 25km2 with “thorough searches through the jungle, roads in the region and flooded vegetation,” especially in the area where a boat belonging to Oliveira was found.
Earlier, authorities described 41-year-old Oliveira as a “suspect,” and said they were analyzing traces of blood found on his boat.
The finding of the men’s belongings came just hours after friends and relatives of the pair held a vigil on a beach in Rio de Janeiro.
“At first we had a crazy faith that they had noticed some danger and had hidden in the jungle,” 78-year-old Maria Lucia Farias said. “Now, not anymore.”
In a statement posted online and reported by the Guardian, Phillips’ mother-in-law said: “They are no longer with us. Mother Nature has snatched them away with a grateful embrace.”
“Their souls have joined those of so many others who gave their lives in defense of the rainforest and indigenous peoples,” she added.
Few of those gathered at the beach expressed much hope in the men’s survival, especially after authorities said they had found a second boat with blood marks, and had located possible human remains, still being analyzed.
Phillips had traveled to the Javari Valley while working on a book on environmental protection. Pereira went along as a guide.
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