The investigation now aims to clarify whether the other remains that have been found correspond to the also murdered Brazilian native.
Brazil’s federal police confirmed on Friday that some of the remains found in a river in the Amazon correspond to British journalist Dom Phillips, who disappeared and was murdered along with native Bruno Araújo Pereira.
According to a note released by that agency, the confirmation was made possible thanks to “a legal dental exam combined with forensic anthropology” and it is now being investigated whether other found remains correspond to the Brazilian native.
Likewise, the note stated that the analyzes “continue to understand the causes of death, as well as indicate the dynamics of the crime and concealment of the bodies.”
Phillips and Araújo Pereira had been missing since June 5 and were last seen navigating a river in the Jaravi Valley, in a remote region of the Amazon bordering Colombia and Peru.
As part of the investigation, two illegal fishermen operating in that region were arrested and one of them eventually confessed to the murders and this Wednesday took authorities to a remote site where he said they were buried.
Human remains were found at that site, later transferred to Brasilia to carry out the necessary analyzes to confirm the identity of the victims.
Also this Friday, the federal police said that the investigations so far “indicate that the executors acted alone”, although they clarified that new arrests should be made as there is evidence of the participation of other people, in addition to the two fishermen already arrested.
Araújo Pereira, an official on leave from the National Indian Foundation (Funai), had been the target of various threats from illegal fishermen, loggers and even drug traffickers operating in the Javari Valley, where the law of the jungle and the presence of the State is scarce.
Fisherman Amarildo Da Costa Oliveira “Pelado”, who confessed to killing Phillips, a veteran employee of The Guardian, and Araújo, also acknowledged that the indigenous people had already intercepted him while illegally fishing in the area.
Authorities have also said searches are still underway for the boat Phillips and Araújo Pereira were traveling in, which, according to the “Pelado” version, was sunk with some bags of earth to avoid being found.
The deaths of Phillips, 57, and Araújo, 41, have shocked the world and exposed the threats surrounding the Amazon jungle and indigenous peoples, such as mining, fishing, poaching and drug trafficking.
Source: La Verdad
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