Brazilian police have found human remains at the site where English journalist from The Guardian Dom Philips and Brazilian tour guide Bruno Araújo Pereira disappeared last Sunday, last seen in the Itacai River in the remote Amazon region. Dom and Bruno traveled to Vale do Zhavari to listen to complaints from indigenous and river dwellers about the presence of armed groups on their lands and the predatory activities of miners, loggers, fishermen and illegal hunters.
In a brief statement, the police said that in the Itacai River, below the settlement of Cachoeirinha, near the port of the city of Atalaya do Norte, on the border of the Brazilian state of Amazonas with Peru. An English journalist and a Brazilian guide to isolated peoples disappeared en route to Atalaya do Norte, where indigenous leaders were waiting for them, but they never arrived.
Hours before the police discovery, volunteers involved in an intensive search for the two missing men told authorities they had found evidence of freshly dug, removed and rammed earth at the site. Amazonian firefighters, police, and the army then went to a volunteer-specified location on the banks of the Itacai River and found human remains.
This material will be sent to the National Institute of Criminalistics for analysis, as will the traces of blood found the day before on the speedboat of Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the disappearance of Dom and Bruno. Witnesses say they saw Amarildo in his speedboat stalking the journalist and researcher after they left the community of San Rafael in Vale do Javari and headed back across the river to Atalaya do Norte.
Footprints found in the river and on Amarildo’s boat will be matched with Dom’s and Bruno’s DNA to see if they are compatible. Genetic material from family members of Dom Philips has already been collected in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia, where the English journalist lives, and the same has been done with members of the family of Bruno Araujo Pereira in Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco. where his family lives.
