According to the family, Roberto Doring, deputy head of the mission at the Brazilian embassy in London, called them on Monday to tell them that bodies had been found. In a statement, the family said: “We were told by telephone that two bodies had been found but that (due to the fact that it was still early in the morning in Brazil) no identification had been made.” Brazilian Federal Police have repeatedly denied finding corpses during the search for Phillips and Brazilian investigator Bruno Pereira, and said Monday night that the day’s search was over “but nothing was found”. “The information released about the bodies of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips is inaccurate,” said Federal Police. “As it has already been revealed, biological materials have been found and are being examined, as well as personal belongings of the missing. As soon as anything is found, the family and the media will be informed immediately.” The indigenous organizations involved in the investigation also said that the information about the two bodies was inaccurate. On Monday, Beatriz Matos, Pereira’s wife, said on Twitter that police had told her family “no one was found”. “It is necessary to understand where the ambassador got this information from,” Matos wrote. Police arrested a second suspect in connection with the couple’s disappearance on Tuesday, according to a Federal Police press release. The first suspect was arrested last week. Police said the second suspect, a 41-year-old, is being questioned and will be remanded in custody at a municipal court. They also said they seized some gun cartridges and a paddle, which will be analyzed. Arruda said in an email to Phillips’s family that officials close to the investigation had “misled” embassy staff. “After some reflection, it rained on the part of the multi-service team, for which I wholeheartedly apologize,” he said, adding: “The search operation will continue without any effort. Our thoughts remain with Dom, Bruno, yourself. and the other members of both families. ” In a statement sent to CNN, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry also confirmed its ambassador’s apology for passing on “information that proved inaccurate”. They have been investigating a book project on conservation efforts in the area, which authorities have described as “complicated” and “dangerous” and which is known to house illegal miners, loggers and international drug traffickers.
