Brazilian authorities on Monday threw cold water on reports that the bodies of missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira have been found.
“I’ve spoken with the team in the field and it’s not true,” said Eliesio Marubo, a lawyer for the indigenous group UNIVAJA. “The search goes on.”
A report in The Guardian quoting Phillips’ brother-in-law, Paul Sherwood, said local authorities had discovered two as yet unidentified bodies “tied to a tree” in the Amazon rainforest during a manhunt for the missing pair. Citing Phillips’ wife Alessandra Sampaio, Brazilian news site G1 reported that the bodies found were those of Phillips and Pereira, but federal police later said that wasn’t the case.
ADVERTISEMENT
On Saturday, belongings for both men including an identifying document and items of clothing were discovered during a search in the Javari region. The men—who disappeared a week ago while returning from a four-day reporting excursion in a remote area near the border with Peru and Colombia— were last seen alive on June 5.
On Monday, the Brazilian ambassador to the U.K. called Phillips’ family to say two bodies had been found. “He didn’t describe the location and just said it was in the rainforest and he said they were tied to a tree and they hadn’t been identified yet,” Sherwood told The Guardian. “He said that when it was light, or when it was possible they would do an identification.”
The pair have worked together on expeditions in the Amazon for the last four years, according to The Guardian, where Phillips was a contributor. Phillips had been reporting on Brazil for over a decade for newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Indigenous expert Pereira had reportedly received threats for his work covering illegal fishing before his disappearance.
Phillips and Pereira vanished while in an area that is home to the largest number of uncontacted indigenous communities on the planet. The region is said to have attracted cocaine smugglers and other groups participating in outlawed activities including illegal mining and logging.
Several local forces in Brazil including the navy and army have deployed resources in the search for the missing pair. Volunteers, including a large group of indigenous people, have also taken part in the manhunt.
Monday’s news comes after a huge public appeal for information about their whereabouts. “The trend of journalists being attacked, killed, or disappeared in rightward veering ‘democracies’ must be called out,” actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted on Thursday. “There needs to be an international response to this.”
