Wife and sister of Dom Phillips share tearful pleas to step up search for missing journalist

The wife of missing journalist and former Mixmag editor Dom Phillips (pictured) has made an emotional plea calling for authorities to step up the search for “the love of my life”.

In a video message shared with the Guardian, who Phillips is a regular contributor for, Alessandra Sampaio urged: “I want to make an appeal to the federal government and the relevant organs to intensify their search efforts, because we still have some hope of finding them.”

She broke down in tears as she added: “Even if I don’t find the love of my life alive, they must be found, please – intensify the search.”

John Kerry, US climate envoy and former secretary of state under Barack Obama, has also promised to look into the case.

Phillips and an Indigenous expert he was travelling with, Bruno Araújo Pereira, went missing on Sunday during a reporting mission in a remote part of the Amazon. The men have faced threats for working to protect Indigenous communities from activity such as illegal logging, goldmining, hunting and coca-growing.

Brazilian police have opened a criminal investigation, and have interviewed several local fishermen, reports Reuters. Guilherme Torres, the head of the interior department of civil police in the Brazilian Amazonas state, said Pereira recently received a threatening letter from a local fisherman.

One man is being treated as a potential suspect, and has been taken into custody in handcuffs at a local police station, according to Denis Paiva, the mayor of Atalaia do Norte, a municipality in Amazonas.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has faced criticism for appearing to blame the missing men, quoted by the AFP news agency as saying: "Two people in a boat in a region like that, completely wild - it's an unadvisable adventure. Anything can happen. Maybe there was an accident, maybe they were executed.”

Pereira is a well-travelled expert on the region.

US climate envoy John Kerry has made a pledge to investigate the disappearance of the missing men, after being informed about the case by the Brazilian Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara during a ceremony for Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2022 where Guajajara was being honoured.

Guajajara said: “Unfortunately, I can’t even celebrate or commemorate being on this list because I have to lament … the disappearance of Indigenous activist Bruno and journalist Dom Phillips who have vanished, simply vanished, and no one knows where they are.

“The search is so slow, and it is pitiful that we continue to live in a situation where there is no security.”

John Kerry reported looked shocked and replied: “We will follow up with you.”

Phillips’ sister Sian has also made an emotional plea calling on the UK and US governments to lobby Bolsonaro, who is due to meet US president Joe Biden this week in Los Angeles, to do more to assist the investigation, saying: “He’s not going to do anything without having pressure put on him.”

In the message, she also said: “We knew it was a dangerous place but Dom really believed it’s possible to safeguard the nature and the livelihood of the Indigenous people.

“We are really worried about him and urge the authorities in Brazil to do all they can to search the routes he was following. If anyone can help scale up resources for the search that would be great because time is crucial.”

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Editor, follow him on Twitter