Dom Phillips and his guide Bruno Pereira went missing 5 June in a remote part of the Amazon that is rife with environmental crimes including illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.
MANAUS - One of two men arrested over the disappearance of a British journalist and an Indigenous expert in the Brazilian Amazon confessed to having buried the pair in the jungle, federal police said Wednesday after human remains were found.
"Excavations have been carried out on site. The excavations will continue, but human remains have already been found," he said. Phillips' Brazilian wife, Alessandra Sampaio, in a statement Wednesday thanked "all the teams that carried out the search, especially the Indigenous volunteers," whose absence from the press conference was criticized by some observers.
The other suspect, a man reported to be Oliveira's brother, Oseney da Costa Oliveira, was arrested Tuesday in Atalaia do Norte, the small northern city that Phillips and Pereira were returning to when they disappeared in the remote Javari Valley after receiving threats during a trip.Phillips, 57, a long-time contributor to Britain's The Guardian and other leading international newspapers, was working on a book on sustainable development in the Amazon.
The two men's disappearance sparked global outrage, drawing reaction from high profile political figures as well as celebrities such as members of Irish rock band U2.President Jair Bolsonaro had said Monday that entrails were found in the water during search operations, but police never confirmed this.