(Removes second reference to full names of Phillips and Pereira in paragraph 5)
By Jake Spring
ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (Reuters) -Brazilian search teams have found “apparently human” remains in a river near where a British journalist was last seen in the Amazon rainforest, federal police said on Friday, in what may be the biggest break yet for the five-day investigation.
The “organic material” is being sent for forensic analysis, federal police said in a statement, along with blood found on a suspect’s boat that will be compared with genetic material from freelance journalist Dom Phillips and his travel companion, indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.
A Brazilian judge had already ordered the suspect, a fisherman charged with illegal possession of restricted ammunition, to be held for a further 30 days while police investigate whether he is involved, according to a lawyer for a local indigenous organization.
State Judge Jacinta Silva dos Santos said the proceedings are under seal and she could not comment on whether other audiences are planned for the fisherman Amarildo da Costa, known locally as “Pelado.”
Police have said Costa was one of the last people to see Phillips and Pereira on Sunday, when they went missing after visiting the fisherman’s riverside community of Sao Gabriel.
Eliesio Morubo, the lawyer for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA), said the judge agreed to keep the fisherman jailed for 30 days because the case involved a possible “heinous crime” such as murder and hiding bodies.
State police detectives involved in the investigation have told Reuters they are focusing on poachers and illegal fisherman in the area, who clashed often with Pereira as he organized indigenous patrols of the local reservation.
Costa’s lawyers and family have said he fished legally on the river and denied he had any role in the men’s disappearance.
The state public defender’s office confirmed Costa was being kept in police custody while authorities investigate whether he was involved in the case.
(Reporting by Jake Spring; Writing and additional reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Daniel Wallis Editing by Brad Haynes)
