Brasília, Brazil — Brazilian federal police said on Saturday that a third suspect in the death of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira had been arrested. The pair went missing almost two weeks ago. The killing of Phillips was confirmed after a forensic examination. Other ruins are believed to belong to Pereira.
Police said in a statement that Jefferson da Silvalima, known as Perado da Dinha, had moved to the police station at Atalaia do Norte in the Amazon.
Police said the suspect would be referred to a custody hearing.
The other two men have already been put in jail on suspicion of being involved in the murder. Amarildo Riuler, known as Perado, and his brother, Osny de Oliveira, known as Dos Santos.
Phillips and Pereira were last seen on June 5 on a boat on the Itacai River near the entrance to the indigenous territory of the Javanese Valley, which borders Peru and Colombia.
On Friday, federal police said a human body found in a remote Amazon in Brazil was identified as belonging to Phillips, 57.
Additional bodies found near the city of Atalaia de Norte have not yet been identified, but are expected to belong to the indigenous expert Pereira, 41.
“The confirmation (of Phillips’s body) was based on dental examinations and anthropological forensics,” federal police said in a statement. “Work is underway to fully identify the body, allowing us to identify the cause of death, the dynamics of the crime, and the concealment of the body.”
The body was found on Wednesday after fisherman Perado confessed that he had killed the pair, and he took police to the place where he would have buried the body. He told police that he used a firearm to commit a crime.
The remains arrived in the capital Brasília on Thursday for forensic functioning.
In areas where Phillips and Pereira are missing, there is fierce conflict between fishermen, poachers and government agencies.
Deborah Alvarez
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