Human remains were found in Brazil during a search for missing British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. “Evidence suggests that something bad was done to them, as human viscera were found in the river,” President Jair Bolsonaro told CBN Recife radio today. These would now undergo a DNA test.
Phillips’ niece Dominique Davies told AFP that “two bodies were found”. The relatives are now awaiting confirmation from the Brazilian Federal Police about the disappearance of the two. Police have not yet confirmed this information.
Missing for about a week
Phillips, 57, who wrote regularly for the British Guardian as a freelance journalist, and Pereira, an expert on indigenous peoples, were researching a book on violence against indigenous people in the Javari Valley, near the Peruvian border. . The two men have been missing for a week. Gold miners, poachers and traffickers are active in the region. According to indigenous organizations, the men had been threatened before.
According to authorities, the two men’s personal belongings were found near a suspect’s home in the Amazon rainforest over the weekend. Investigators arrested him on Wednesday. Witnesses said they saw the man chasing Phillips and Pereira’s boat. Traces of blood were later found on the man’s boat.