Police in Brazil find human remains in search for missing British journalist, indigenous expert

By Muhammed Emin Canik

BUENOS AIRES (AA) - Brazil’s Justice Minister Anderson Torres announced late Wednesday that human remains were found in the area where the search continues for a British journalist and an indigenous expert.

No one has heard from Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira since early this month.

"Recently, federal police informed me that human remains were found at the site of the excavations," Torres said on Twitter.

Noting that the officers conducting the investigation will hold a press conference, he said the remains will undergo forensic analysis.

According to Eduardo Alexandre Fontes, the head of the federal police in Brazil's Amazonas state, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira and his brother Oseney were detained as suspects in the disappearance of Phillips and Pereira and Amarildo confessed to killing the two men, which led to the discovery of the remains.

Fontes told a press conference that the findings indicate that Phillips and Pereira were killed with a firearm, but the exact cause of death will be determined in line with the investigations.

The police chief noted that a third suspect may have been involved in the killings based on Amarildo's confession.

Phillips, 57, who worked for the British-based newspaper The Guardian and traveled to the region to write a book on indigenous peoples in the Amazon, and Pereira, 41, an expert at the government-affiliated National Indigenous Foundation, have been missing since June 5.