A forensic examination of the human remains found in the Amazon rainforest confirmed Friday that they belonged to British journalist Dom Phillips, Brazil’s federal police said, adding in a statement that work was underway to determine the cause of death.
The remains of a second person, believed to be indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were still under analysis, according to a CNN Brazil report.
Pereira and Phillips disappeared on June 5 in the remote Javari Valley, on the border with Peru and Colombia. This week, police recovered human remains from a jungle grave led by a fisherman who confessed to killing the two men.
“The remains of Dom Phillips were part of the material collected at the place indicated by Amarildo da Costa Oliveira,” police said.
Phillips, a freelance reporter who had written for The Guardian and the Washington Post, was researching for a book on the trip with Pereira, a former official for isolated and recently contacted tribes from the federal Indian affairs agency Funai.
Earlier, police said their investigation suggested there were more people involved besides the suspect he had confessed to, but that until now the killers were believed to have acted without the involvement of a criminal organization.
“Investigations indicate that the killers acted alone, with no bosses or criminal organization behind them,” police said.
However, the local indigenous group Univaja, which played a leading role in the search, said it had informed federal police on numerous occasions since late 2021 that an organized crime group was operating in the Javari Valley.
“The cruelty of the crime makes it clear that Pereira and Phillips crossed the path of a powerful criminal organization that tried at all costs to cover their tracks during the investigation,” Univaja said.
INA, a union representing Funai workers, shared the view. “We all know that the violence in the Javari Valley is linked to a wide chain of organized crime,” he said in a separate statement.
Police said they were still searching for the boat In which Phillips and Pereira were traveling when they were last seen alive.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday called for “accountability and justice” and said Phillips and Pereira were killed for supporting rainforest conservation 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,” Price said on Twitter.
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