The authorities in Brazil have confirmed that the remains found in the remote rainforest earlier this week are those of missing British journalist Dom Phillips, who was 57 years old.
According to the report by BBC, the remains of the Journalist Dom Phillips were identified using dental records.
The British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing in the Amazon. And although another set of human remains have been found, authorities did not say whether they belong to Pereira; however, tests are being performed to identify the remains, per The Washington Post.
The New York Times reports that no cause of death has been determined, but police say it’s “likely” that the two men were shot, per The Washington Post.
Dom Phillips and Pereira, a staffer on leave from the Brazilian Indigenous National Foundation (FUNAI), went missing on June 5 in the remote Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia.
Earlier this week, fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira – who allegedly confessed to killing the men – led authorities to a grave in the jungle, where they recovered human remains.
“The remains of Dom Phillips were part of the material collected at the place indicated by Amarildo da Costa Oliveira,” the police said via the New York Times.
Police also said their investigation suggested more people were involved in the killings, but that so far, the suspects were believed to have acted without any involvement of a criminal organization, the New York Times reports.
Phillips and Pereria were conducting research for a book in an area of the Amazon that experts believe can be dangerous and known to harbor criminals and international drug dealers, per CNN.
“We are grateful to all those who have taken part in the search, especially the indigenous groups who worked tirelessly to find evidence of the attack,” Phillips’ family said in a statement to BBC on Wednesday. “We thank the many people who have joined us in urging the authorities to intensify the search and those who have reached out with words of comfort and sympathy.”
Phillips’ wife, Alessandra Sampaio, told the outlet in a separate statement: “Now we can bring them home and say goodbye with love,” adding that the suspect’s confession marked the beginning of a “quest for justice.”
Phillips was a longtime contributor to The Guardian and a journalist whose work appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Intercept, Financial Times, and more, according to his Twitter bio.