2 Bodies Found in Amazon Amid Search for Missing Journalist, Indigenous Expert

Phillips and Pereira were reportedly travelling by a boat when they went missing on 5 June.

(Photo Courtesy: EU Parliament)

A week after British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing while on a working visit to the Amazon forest, Brazilian Police has found two bodies feared to be theirs, The Guardian reported.

Phillips and Pereira were reportedly travelling by a boat when they went missing on 5 June, and locals indicated that both were under threat over their work advocating for indigenous rights in the region.

As per The Guardian report, personal items, including clothing, were spotted during a search operation in the Javari region on Monday, 13 June.

The region which both the professional focused on was known for instances of illegal fishing, logging, mining and drug trafficking.

Phillips, a resident of Brazil, was a long-time contributor to the Guardian newspaper, while Pereira was on a research trip for his book.

In a phone call, the Brazilian ambassador to the UK, contacted Phillips’s family and reportedly told them about the bodies.

“He didn’t describe the location and just said it was in the rainforest and he said they were tied to a tree and they hadn’t been identified yet," The Guardian reported Phillips’s brother-in-law, Paul Sherwood as saying.

(With inputs from The Guardian.)