Human remains have been found during the search for missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian researcher Bruno Pereira in the Amazon rainforest. The Brazilian federal police announced this in a press conference on Thursday. Police will work with Interpol to identify the bodies.
On Wednesday, police arrested a second suspect in the case. It concerns the brothers Amarildo and Oseney da Costa. One of them confessed to killing Phillips and Pereira, police said. They do not rule out that more people were involved in the double murder.
The suspect led police to the burial site of the bodies, where human remains were subsequently found. Phillips and Pereira are said to have been killed for taking pictures of illegal fishing in the rainforest.
There was uncertainty for days about the fate of the two, who have been missing for more than a week. On Monday, Phillips’ wife said the men had been found dead in the Amazon rainforest, but authorities denied that. President Jair Bolsonaro did say that human remains have been found, but a search team later denied this.
Phillips writes for the British newspaper The Guardian and Pereira works for the Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs. The two were on an expedition together in the Javari Valley, along the border with Peru. They were said to be interviewing for a book on conservation in the area that is the scene of illegal fishing, logging, mining and drug trafficking.