HOPE DIMS

Missing Journo’s Personal Items Found Floating in the Amazon

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have been missing since June 5, after receiving threats for their work with Indigenous tribes in the region.

A week after they were reported missing in a remote part of the Amazon, British journalist Dom Phillips and veteran Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira have been presumed dead by the reporter’s family. Phillips, a Guardian contributor working on a book about the region, had been traveling with Pereira when they disappeared shortly after receiving threats from illegal fishermen. On Sunday, Brazilian authorities announced that clothing belonging to the two men was found by an Indigenous search team hunting for the pair in a flooded forest. Phillips’ backpack and Pereira’s health card were also recovered from the water. “They are no longer with us,” Phillips’ mother-in-law wrote in an Instagram post reshared by his wife. “...Their souls have joined those of so many others who gave their lives in defense of the rainforest and Indigenous peoples.” A suspect in the case, Amarildo da Costa, was ordered held in the custody of Brazilian authorities last week after witnesses reported seeing him pursue Phillips and Pereira up the river, according to France24.