Phillips and Pereira went missing more than a week ago along a remote stretch of the Itacoai River in western Brazil near the border with Colombia and Peru. Elivio Marubo, Univaja’s lawyer, said indigenous investigators informed authorities after discovering traces of men in the area, helping to focus the investigation. “We understand that we are heading towards the end. “The research area has shrunk further,” Marubo said late Monday. On Sunday, police said investigators found the two men’s belongings in a creek off the river near where they were last seen on June 5. A statement from federal police and a spokesman for Univaja, which has been conducting ongoing investigations, refuted subsequent reports that two bodies had been found during the search. Brazil’s federal police say they expect to complete a forensic analysis this week of a blood sample collected from the boat of a man suspected of involvement in the disappearance. Sunday’s police statement said the belongings of the two men found contained an ID for Pereira. A firefighter on a search team told reporters about a backpack with clothes and a laptop tied to a half-sunken tree trunk. It was located in the remote area of the jungle near the border with Peru and Colombia, which hosts the largest number of Indigenous people who have no contact. The wild and illegal area has lured cocaine smuggling gangs, along with illegal loggers, miners and hunters. News of the couple’s disappearance resonated around the world, with human rights groups, environmentalists and supporters of the free press urging Brazilian President Zaire Bolsonaro to step up investigations. Bolsonaro, who once faced a tough question from Phillips at a press conference about weakening environmental law enforcement, said last week that the two men were “on an unintended adventure” and assumed they could have executed. In Brasilia, Funai’s staff went on a one-day protest to demand greater security for indigenous experts working in the field and the replacement of Bolsonaro’s chief of staff by a police officer. The Morning and Afternoon Newsletters are compiled by Globe editors, giving you a brief overview of the day’s most important headlines. Register today.
