SÃO PAULO — A forensic examination carried out on human stays discovered within the Amazon rainforest confirmed on Friday that they belonged to the British journalist Dom Phillips, Brazil’s federal police stated.
Work was underway to find out the reason for dying, the police stated in an announcement.
The stays of a second individual, believed to be Bruno Pereira, an professional on Indigenous peoples, was nonetheless below evaluation, a report by CNN Brasil stated earlier on Friday.
Mr. Pereira and Mr. Phillips vanished on June 5 within the distant Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia. Earlier this week, the police recovered human stays from a grave within the jungle the place they had been led by Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, a fisherman who had confessed to killing the 2 males.
“The remains of Dom Phillips were part of the material collected at the place indicated by Amarildo da Costa Oliveira,” the police stated.
Mr. Phillips, a contract reporter who had written for The Guardian and The Washington Post, was doing analysis for a guide on the journey with Mr. Pereira, a former head of remoted and just lately contacted tribes on the federal Indigenous affairs company Funai.
Earlier within the day, police stated their investigation recommended there have been extra people concerned past the suspect who had confessed, however that to date the killers had been believed to have acted with out the involvement of a legal group.
“The investigations indicate that the killers acted alone, with no bosses or criminal organization behind the crime,” the police stated.
The native Indigenous group Univaja, nonetheless, which performed a number one function within the search, stated it had knowledgeable the federal police quite a few occasions since late 2021 that there was an organized crime group working within the Javari Valley.
“The cruelty of the crime makes clear that Pereira and Phillips crossed paths with a powerful criminal organization that tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation,” stated Univaja.
INA, a union representing employees at Funai, shared the view.
“We all know that violence in the Javari Valley is linked to a wide chain of organized crime,” it stated in a separate assertion.
Police stated they had been nonetheless trying to find the boat Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pereira had been touring in once they had been final seen alive.
The U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday known as for “accountability and justice,” saying that Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pereira had been murdered for supporting conservation of the rainforest and Native peoples.
“Our condolences to the families of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira … We must collectively strengthen efforts to protect environmental defenders and journalists,” Mr. Price stated on Twitter.
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