A Murder in the Forest

Summary

Criminal Podcast Episode Summary: "A Murder in the Forest"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Criminal
• Host/Author: Vox Media Podcast Network
• Description: A show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge.
• Episode: A Murder in the Forest
• Release Date: September 20, 2024

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Introduction to the Javari Valley

Terry McCoy sets the stage by introducing listeners to the Javari Valley in northwestern Brazil, near the borders of Peru and Colombia. This remote region, about the size of Portugal, is home to 26 indigenous tribes, 19 of which are uncontacted. The lack of infrastructure—no roads, reliance on rivers for transportation—makes the area both isolated and vulnerable.

[03:01] Terry McCoy: "They'd made a plan to go and visit one of Bruno Pereira's friends and collaborators."

Key Figures: Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips

Bruno Pereira is introduced as a dedicated indigenista—someone who devotes their life to advocating for indigenous rights. Born outside the Javari Valley, Bruno immersed himself in the region, learning multiple indigenous languages and forming deep connections with the local communities.

Dom Phillips, a British journalist and long-time resident of Brazil, partners with Bruno to document and support the efforts to protect the rainforest and its inhabitants. Dom's work focused on the impacts of agriculture and illegal activities like cattle farming on the Amazon.

[10:38] Terry McCoy: "Bruno Pereira was born far away from the Javari Valley, in a city in the northeast of Brazil. He often went on expeditions into the forest that lasted for weeks."

Eliezio Morubo: The Indigenous Lawyer

Eliezio Morubo, an indigenous lawyer from the Marubo tribe, plays a crucial role in the narrative. He works with Univaja (Union of Indigenous People of the Javari Valley) to protect indigenous territories from illegal poaching, logging, and other encroachments. Eliezio and Bruno share a long-standing partnership, both professionally and personally, as their daughters became close friends.

[06:23] Eliezio Morubo: "It's a very special place for me. I really liked playing in the river."

Rising Tensions and Violence

The Javari Valley has been plagued by increasing violence due to illegal activities like poaching, gold mining, and logging. Organized crime groups exploit the region's isolation, leading to frequent attacks and murders. The political climate under President Jair Bolsonaro exacerbated these issues by weakening environmental protections and indigenous rights.

[22:09] Julia Carnero: "This area in recent years has been subsumed by crime. It's at the nexus of three different countries, with a lot of drug trafficking going on between them."

The Disappearance of Bruno and Dom

In September 2024, Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips embarked on a river trip to document and support the indigenous scouting teams fighting illegal activities. Ten days into their journey, both men vanished. Their bodies were later found deep in the forest, revealing a brutal murder orchestrated by local criminal elements.

[30:04] Terry McCoy: "As they passed his stilt house on the river, he fired a shot. It went over their heads."

Investigation and Arrests

The investigation revealed that Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira (Pilato) and Jefferson da Silva Lima orchestrated the murders. They confessed to shooting Bruno and Dom, leading to the eventual dismemberment and disposal of the bodies.

[31:00] Julia Carnero: "They saw Pilato in his boat and he raised his shotgun at some of the scouts as a warning."

Despite these arrests, suspicions of broader involvement persisted. Additional arrests were made, including a suspected leader of an illegal fishing network, suggesting deeper ties within organized crime.

[35:25] Terry McCoy: "Pilato and Jefferson da Silva Lima are awaiting trial. Pilato's brother was just released after 27 months in prison."

Aftermath and Ongoing Struggles

The murders of Bruno and Dom highlighted the fragile state of law enforcement and environmental protection in the region. Although Jair Bolsonaro’s successor, President Lula da Silva, took steps to curb deforestation and appointed Brazil’s first indigenous minister, the Javari Valley remains a hotspot for violence and illegal exploitation.

[36:21] Julia Carnero: "The forest is still being destroyed every single day."

Eliezio Morubo continues his fight from hiding, advocating for justice and the protection of indigenous lands. He suspects a cover-up in the investigation and believes the murders are part of a larger pattern of organized crime targeting those who defend the rainforest.

[37:40] Eliezio Morubo: "So Bruno, he was just a stone that was removed from its place. That's how organized crime works."

Conclusion and Reflections

The episode underscores the immense challenges faced by indigenous communities and environmental advocates in the Amazon. The story of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips serves as a poignant reminder of the ongoing struggle to protect one of the world's most vital ecosystems from exploitation and violence.

[37:59] Eliezio Morubo: "In any case, here I am. I continue in the same fight as always until the end."

Criminal masterfully weaves personal narratives with broader socio-political issues, offering listeners a deep dive into the complexities of crime, justice, and environmental conservation in one of the Earth's most remote and contested regions.

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Notable Quotes:

• Eliezio Morubo on changing his life due to threats:

  [05:51] Eliezio Morubo: "I packed a few clothes, a toothbrush, and left for an unknown destination. I went to a different city to live in a different city."

• Bruno's dedication to indigenous causes:

  [11:39] Terry McCoy: "Bruno, he decided to dedicate his life to this cause."

• Pilato's motivation for murder:

  [33:35] Julia Carnero: "He thought, take away Bruno, you open up the entire area."

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Key Takeaways:

1. Vulnerability of Remote Regions: The Javari Valley's isolation makes it a battleground for illegal activities and a haven for uncontacted tribes.
2. Impact of Political Leadership: Bolsonaro’s policies weakened environmental protections, escalating deforestation and crime.
3. Courage of Advocates: Individuals like Bruno Pereira and Eliezio Morubo exemplify the relentless fight for indigenous rights and environmental conservation.
4. Complexity of Justice: Despite arrests, the involvement of organized crime and potential cover-ups complicate the pursuit of justice.

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This detailed summary captures the essence of "A Murder in the Forest," highlighting the intertwined lives of those dedicated to protecting the Amazon and the severe challenges they face.

Transcript

[Advertiser]

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[Terry McCoy]

Support for Criminal comes from Framed John Grisham teams up with innocence advocate Jim McCloskey in their New York Times bestseller framed 10 True Stories of Innocent People Framed for Murder. In Framed, you'll read about the incompetence, corruption and racism that contribute to wrongful convictions. And you'll be able to hear real people's stories as they fought for freedom against the odds. Read Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCluskey in stores now also available as an audiobook. You come to the New Yorker Radio Hour for conversations that go deeper with.

[Julia Carnero]

People you really want to hear from.

[Terry McCoy]

Whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or Olivia Rodrigo, Liz Cheney, or the godfather of artificial intelligence Geoffrey Hinton, or some.

[Julia Carnero]

Of my extraordinarily well informed colleagues at the New Yorker.

[Terry McCoy]

So join us every week on the.

[Julia Carnero]

New Yorker Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts. It was intended to be a short trip. Three days on the river and they would go down. They were going to spend two nights at the end of the river and come home. And that was going to be it.

[Terry McCoy]

This was in a part of northwestern Brazil called the Javari Valley. It's near the borders of Peru and Colombia. There were two men on the trip. One of them was Brazilian Bruno Pereira, an expert on indigenous issues who lived and worked in the region. The other man was a British journalist named Dom Phillips. He had lived in Brazil for over 15 years, but was visiting the Javari Valley to write about Bruno's work. They'd planned to set up from a small town and sail down the Itaquai river, which cuts through the rainforest. The night before they left, Dom Philip stayed in one of the only hotels in town.

[Julia Carnero]

The morning he left, he was talking to the manager and he told the manager, we're heading east on the river.

[Terry McCoy]

But actually they were heading south. Terry McCoy is the Washington Post Rio de Janeiro bureau chief.

[Julia Carnero]

And so he obviously was trying to confuse people on where he was going. And then they headed down the river to do their work. Going the Opposite direction of what he told the hotel manager.

[Terry McCoy]

They'd made a plan to go and visit one of Bruno Pereira's friends and collaborators. When they got back, an indigenous lawyer named Eliezio Morubo. They'd worked together protecting indigenous territory in the rainforest. Bruno had called Eliezio to let him know they would be coming.

[Eliezio Morubo]

He said, I'll arrive on Sunday and we'll stop by your house.

[Terry McCoy]

But then on Sunday morning, Eliezio received a phone call.

[Eliezio Morubo]

Saying, look, Bruno didn't get here. He should have arrived at 8am So I said, stay on the watch. He said, no, I'm going to take the other boat and I'm going to try to find him because his boat might have broken down. So he set out to do that.

[Terry McCoy]

They talked again later.

[Eliezio Morubo]

And he got back and said, eliezio, I didn't find Bruno. I didn't find any sign of Bruno.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliezio Morubo is speaking to us in Portuguese. Reporter Julia Carnero translates.

[Eliezio Morubo]

I called the authorities. I set up a team and I went up the river again. But we didn't find him.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliezio organized a search team and we.

[Eliezio Morubo]

Carried out a very thorough search.

[Julia Carnero]

When I saw that Dom had gone missing, I didn't know where he was, what was happening. I did know that region, though. I'd reported before in the Javari Valley. And I knew how remote it was. I knew how distant it was. And I know that hours, if not days, can go by without having cell service. And so I thought, you know, I think that this could still turn out okay. I called a police source and I asked him what he thought had happened. And he was like, I think they'll show up in a day or two. You know, this happens. People go. You know, they got maybe a boat thing. Boat malfunction. There's. So I was feeling okay. I think this could still turn out okay.

[Terry McCoy]

Then Terry McCoy talked with Eliezio Morubo.

[Julia Carnero]

I remember he told me, I don't have any hope anymore. They suffered an attack for sure. He knew it.

[Eliezio Morubo]

We always thought he had been murdered. We didn't share this with anyone, with other people outside of our group. But we already imagined what had happened.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliezio started worrying that other people might be attacked, too. Things felt so unsafe to him that he left his home.

[Eliezio Morubo]

I packed a few clothes, a toothbrush, and left for an unknown destination. I went to a different city to live in a different city. I completely changed my life. I had to break up personal relationships. I had to live alone. I had to Reinvent myself.

[Terry McCoy]

I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal.

[Eliezio Morubo]

Now. I was born in a Marubo community at the head of the Curacao River.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliezio. Marubo is part of the Marubo indigenous tribe.

[Eliezio Morubo]

Eliezio is my first name, and my last name comes from our people, the Marubu people.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliezio grew up in the Javari Valley indigenous territory, one of the most remote areas in the world. It's about the size of Portugal. The territory is home to 26 indigenous tribes. 19 tribes are what's called uncontacted and basically have no communications with the outside world. The Javari Valley is home to the largest known number of uncontacted people. There are no roads in the territory. People use the rivers for transportation. Eliezio says his community largely lives off the forest, hunting and fishing and keeping small plantations.

[Eliezio Morubo]

We cut down very few trees. The areas designated for plantations are not permanent ones. We choose a place near the community, but not too close to it. We plant, and after we harvest, we plant somewhere else so that the forest can grow back again. So there's generally a lot of fruit, whether wild or cultivated fruits. There's a specific area in the community where we only have medicinal plants, which are more difficult to find inside the forest. The logic is as guys buy things and store them and put them in the fridge. We don't need this because everything is at hand. If we want fish, we go to the lake and catch fish. The same thing with meat. The basis of Marubu food is red meat, and we really enjoy tapir meat. So we hunt tapirs because tapir meat is the best, the most nutritious.

[Terry McCoy]

A tapir sort of looks like a pig crossed with an anteater. They're sometimes called a living fossil because they've been around for 55 million years. People illegally hunt the tapir, along with yellow spotted river turtles and a prehistoric fish that looks like a giant snake. It's known as the Amazon giant and can grow up to 10ft long. There's also illegal logging. People cut down the forest to sell the wood and to make space for gold mining and large cattle farms.

[Eliezio Morubo]

Then we start talking about how people are starting to go hungry because many animals that were the basis of our diet no longer exist. So we no longer have that food safety. We have to re adapt our food needs. There are regions where indigenous people lost 100% of their territory.

[Terry McCoy]

A few years ago, a government agency captured a video of a member of an uncontacted tribe. The man was the last survivor of his community. The Government agency believes everyone else was likely killed by ranchers or illegal miners. The man lived alone in the forest for over two decades, avoiding contact with other people. His body was found in 2022. Eliseo Morubo works as a lawyer for a small organization called Univaja, or Union of Indigenous People of the Javari Valley. In 2020, Eliasio Morubo filed a lawsuit against American evangelists trying to approach uncontacted tribes in the forest to con Bruno Pereira was also working with Univasha when he disappeared on the river. Eliasio and Bruno had known each other for years and had first met through Iliacio's brother. The three of them all had daughters who were close in age.

[Eliezio Morubo]

They're just a year apart. So our daughters became friends. So we ended up doing things together. Because they wanted to be together. We started to do things like friends.

[Terry McCoy]

Bruno Pereira was born far away from the Javari Valley, in a city in the northeast of Brazil. He often went on expeditions into the forest that lasted for weeks. And he learned to speak at least four indigenous languages.

[Eliezio Morubo]

We'd always say he was very similar to us. We'd say, boy, how can it be that you're so similar? His thinking was very similar to ours. So we got along very well because of that.

[Julia Carnero]

There's something in Brazil called an indigenista. An indigenista is somebody who dedicates their lives to the indigenous cause. In Brazil, like so much of the Americas, is a story ultimately of colonization and indigenous people losing out on their territories and rights. And Brazil, this is a very animating political issue. And Bruno, he decided to dedicate his life to this cause.

[Terry McCoy]

At Univasha, they felt that the authorities weren't doing enough to protect indigenous populations from poachers or people encroaching on their territory. They decided that if the government wouldn't investigate criminal activity in the forest, they would do it themselves. They formed groups of people who would work as scouts. They would travel the forest and the rivers to find out about people who were poaching, fishing or logging illegally.

[Julia Carnero]

These indigenous scout teams would go out for a week or two and take photographs, get geographical positions, video record, find out who's ravaging the territory, make a dossier and give it back to Bruno.

[Terry McCoy]

So Bruno would go out on the water with the scouts, and then he and his colleagues would share what they found with the police, hoping that they would arrest the poachers. British journalist Dom Phillips wanted to write about Bruno's work with the scouts.

[Julia Carnero]

So I got in touch with Bruno and Bruno Brought him out to say, like, come on out. I'll show you the work that we're doing.

[Terry McCoy]

They decided to spend a few days on the river. During his 15 years in Brazil, Dom Phillips had written about the impact of agriculture on the rainforest, especially big cattle farms. He'd written about jbs, which is the world's biggest meat processor. They sell meat under more than 100 brands. The US is the second biggest importer of Brazilian beef. Dom Phillips reported that some JBS beef comes from cows raised on land that's been illegally cleared.

[Julia Carnero]

Dom was an idealist, and he threw himself into that research and into that work in the hope that by educating people of what this region was, it could help to preserve it.

[Terry McCoy]

He was inspired by what he saw in his reporting trips, how indigenous communities hunt and grow things with no fertilizers. And he was going to write a book. He got a grant to go on reporting trips and interview indigenous people, including the scouting teams fighting illegal poaching and logging that Bruno was leading.

[Julia Carnero]

So he spent months researching different solutions in different areas of the Amazon that he could go visit, understand why the solution is working, what can we learn from it? How can we apply this to other places? And then he's going to come back and write a book about it.

[Terry McCoy]

His river trip in the Javari Valley with Bruno was one of the last reporting trips he'd planned. And then they disappeared. Ten days later, their bodies were found deep in the forest. We'll be right back.

[Advertiser]

This message is a paid partnership with Apple Pay. When you've got a gift list to finish, the last thing you want to do is take out your wallet a million times. Instead, pay the Apple way. With Apple Pay, you can pay with the phone you're already holding. Just double click, smile at face ID tap and you're done. The people in line behind you will thank you. Apple Pay is a service provided by Apple Payment Services, llc, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. Any card used in Apple Pay is offered by the card issuer.

[Terry McCoy]

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[Eliezio Morubo]

It's a very special place for me. I really liked playing in the river. I'd go to the river and spend hours on end. I also went out with the elderly women who generally don't like to take boys or men with them when they go do their activities. But they made an exception with me and said, let's go, I'll take you or your brother.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliseo says they would sometimes meet people from a state agency who gave them toys.

[Eliezio Morubo]

And we tried to play ball. My dad hated it. He said it was a white man's thing, a white thing. But we played there on this little field. So I learned to shoot a bow and arrow to imitate things from the adult world. And at night, everyone a bunch of naked boys, we'd run to the river and jump from the riverbank into the water and bathe until about 6:00 when our mothers would come and say, come on out, threatening to punish us. And we'd run into the big hut because we knew that the elders there would protect us. When we got there, there was food, so we had dinner, ate and played and got dirty again until our mothers took us to the river again for a last bath. I really liked it. When there was a full moon. We lay down on the hammocks, one next to each other, me, my brothers and sisters, and we'd talk about things and make fun of each other or laugh at something silly someone did during the day. We would talk and talk until we got sleepy. The next day started very early. We Woke up around 3am Already playing, doing mischief, doing loads of things. Life was very good.

[Terry McCoy]

When he was a teenager, Eliseo says things changed.

[Eliezio Morubo]

When the child is born. The father or the men say, this one is going to be such and such. So I was born with this purpose, to do politics and to defend the territory. So when I was 16 years old. One day, they called me to go to the main hut for a conversation. I got there. My grandfather said it was necessary for me to go to the city. I would learn to speak Portuguese, I'd get to know money, everything. My journey started there.

[Terry McCoy]

Iliesio moved to the nearest city to go to school.

[Eliezio Morubo]

It was a very painful, very complicated process. I knew what needed to be done, but I had no idea how to do it. So I had lots of ups and downs with bullying, with a lot of prejudice. And then after some time, my family, my mother came to join me. And from then on, we started to develop in the city. After a long time, I finally managed to finish high school. After high school, I took the entrance exam to university. I didn't pass. I only passed on my third attempt. And then I went to study law, because I realized that everything I was set to do my whole life had to do with the world of law.

[Terry McCoy]

When Eliseo returned to the Jovari Valley, he says he noticed a change.

[Eliezio Morubo]

Life no longer unfolded in the same way. We started to face scarcity of certain things that we had very easily in the past. We started to experience fear of things that we had never been afraid of, like the fear of strangers appearing. And we also noticed this impact on the environment, the presence of people hunting, fishing and exploring the territory illegally.

[Terry McCoy]

Today, the entire Amazon rainforest is home to about 30 million people. A lot of people came in the early to mid-1900s to collect SAP from rubber trees and sell it.

[Julia Carnero]

You had a lot of very impoverished people going to very remote places, working for, ultimately, rubber barons. A lot of people end up living along the rivers and becoming fishermen and hunters later on. That was one wave of migration. Another wave of migration was driven by the government. In the 1960s and 1970s, a military dictatorship took over with a dream of taming what had thus far been untamed. And they called it a land without men, for men without land. That meant that we're going to populate this area and make it ours. Because until then, the Amazon had been part of Brazil, but totally separate from Brazil.

[Terry McCoy]

They called it Operation Amazon. And the military built highways through the forest.

[Julia Carnero]

So it became completely anarchic that people would just take land, claim it was theirs, sell it to someone else, and all of a suden became this huge system of cutting down the forest to claim it. So pretty much it was. They built a pathway into this new area. They did that, but they didn't do enough to develop what was at the end of the pathway. And it created this very anarchic violent and lawless place.

[Terry McCoy]

The Javari Valley is designated indigenous territory, meaning non indigenous people are not allowed to hunt there. But lots of other people live in the region near the indigenous territories, and it's hard to make a living in the nearest city. Only 7% are employed.

[Julia Carnero]

This area in recent years has been subsumed by crime. It's at the nexus of three different countries, with a lot of drug trafficking going on between them. And this driving of crime also resulted in a ripple effect of people becoming illegal fishers and illegal hunters. And they would poach inside of these indigenous territories. These are armed fishermen, poachers, and armed hunters.

[Eliezio Morubo]

In Brazil, everyone knows that there are two large criminal groups who fight for territory all over the country. In our region, they work with partners. What do they do? They bring in a person who lives close to the indigenous territory, a person who's going to die if he gets sick because he doesn't have a hospital, someone who needs a boat to go to the city when he needs things from there. But he doesn't have a boat. He only has a canoe that he built with his own strength and which he paddles for several days to reach the city. So if he has the opportunity to get an engine for his boat, if he can get this engine in exchange for simply going to the city, of course he'll do it. So he can take drugs to the city, and it's okay if he's arrested because he is a person who is being used in this process and in the city, he will leave it somewhere and another person who is used by the organized crime will take this drug and take it somewhere else and will receive a pittance for it.

[Terry McCoy]

Organized crime and drug traffickers are said to control a lot of the illegal poaching and logging in the area and don't want reporters or scouts coming around. Over the past decade, at least 300 people, many of them indigenous, have been killed in the Amazon. In 2018, Jared Bolsonaro was elected president.

[Julia Carnero]

Of Brazil, and one of his most animating political calls was the right to develop the Amazon and to pretty much, you know, do away with the nuisance of international pressures to say they couldn't do what they wanted to do with the Amazon.

[Terry McCoy]

At a press conference for international journalists, Dom Phillips asked Bolsonaro about some of the threats facing the Amazon. Bolsonaro replied, the Amazon is Brazil's, not yours. And at one point, he said data showing a rise in deforestation was lies.

[Julia Carnero]

The Amazon for years, has been protected by several agencies in Brazil that safeguard the environment, safeguard indigenous rights. And what Bolsonaro ultimately did was strangle those organizations, those agencies that had those responsibilities. And as those agencies withered, crime surged and crime came in and deforestation rocketed. What keeps the lid on top is the strength of these governmental agencies and indigenous communities to defend the forest. And what Bolsonaro did was he lifted the lid.

[Terry McCoy]

Before Bruno Pereira started working with Univasha, he worked for a government agency. One day, poachers attacked their base, firing shots at the building. There were at least eight attacks in a year. And then one night in 2019, one of Bruno's colleagues, a man named Maxiel Pereira dos Santos, was shot in the back of the head and killed while sitting on his motorcycle. The murder has not yet been solved. Bruno requested a leave from work. He wrote that he needed a break after the murder of his friend and colleague. And because of the, quote, climate of tension, he told people that he was waiting for Bolsonaro's term to end before he would return to the government agency. Instead, he went to work with Eliseo Morubo and Univaja, training indigenous scouts.

[Julia Carnero]

But that work of going out there and surveilling these people and then taking those documents and then giving them to the authorities, that's going to create a lot of tension, a lot of enemies.

[Terry McCoy]

Univaja started receiving threats, delivered D'Alessio Morubo's.

[Julia Carnero]

Office, and then another threat happened where the workers for Univaggio were sitting in the town square and a guy came up and said, if you don't stop this, what happened to your former colleague who had been killed, Bruno's former colleague who had been killed is going to happen to you. And they told the authorities, and they told the authorities and nothing was done. So Bruno bought a gun.

[Terry McCoy]

We'll be right back.

[Eliezio Morubo]

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[Eliezio Morubo]

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[Terry McCoy]

Support for criminal comes from Framed if you're looking for a true crime, must read, There's a new one that comes from none other than John Grisham. It's called Framed and it's his latest New York Times bestseller. Grisham's real life passion for justice led to his work with Jim McCluskey of Centurion Ministries, an organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people. In Framed 10 True Stories of Innocent People Framed for Murder, you'll read about the racism, flawed testimony and corruption that contributes to wrongful convictions and why those convictions are so difficult to reverse. It's stories about real people and their fight for freedom against all odds. Read Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCluskey in stores now. Also available as an audiobook. In 2022, Washington Post Bureau Chief Terry McCoy traveled to the Jivari Valley. He wanted to find out what had happened in the weeks and months leading up to the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips. He read the Scouts reports and spoke with people who knew Bruno. And he learned about something that had happened while Bruno was out on the river with the scouting teams weeks before he disappeared.

[Julia Carnero]

So one day Bruno is heading back up the river and they hear gunshots and they look up.

[Terry McCoy]

They saw a man they knew well. They knew he was involved in illegal fishing and the scouts had collected information about him. He led a team of six men who carried shotguns and went into the indigenous territories at night to fish illegally.

[Julia Carnero]

His name was Palado, and they see Pallado over there holding a gun, looking at them.

[Terry McCoy]

As they passed his stilt house on the river, he fired a shot. It went over their heads.

[Julia Carnero]

They reported authorities, but nothing. Nothing. They didn't do anything about it. So they went back to the city and continued on with their work.

[Terry McCoy]

A few weeks later, Dom Phillips arrived in the Javari Valley. Dom and Bruno spent a couple of days along the river interviewing people. Sometimes they shadowed indigenous scouts. On the second day, they saw Pilato in his boat and he raised his shotgun at some of the scouts as a warning. Months after their deaths, Bruno's phone was found in the forest. It contained photographs of Dom interviewing people and also two videos of Pilato sailing past them. Terry McCoy decided to take the same trip down the river that Dom and Bruno had taken months earlier.

[Julia Carnero]

You know, the funny thing is you're so worried and you're so worried about what's going to happen. And then when we get out there in the rivers, it felt totally calm and placid and beautiful. Oh, it was a beautiful nature. The river was gorgeous. It was so hard to reconcile, you know, the calmness and the beauty of that place with the violence that I know happens frequently.

[Terry McCoy]

On the last day of their trip, Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira knew they would have to sail past Pilato's house to get back to town. So they decided to leave early in the morning.

[Julia Carnero]

But people on the rivers wake up at dawn.

[Terry McCoy]

Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, or Pilato, and another man named Jefferson da Silva Lima confessed to the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips. They told police what happened that morning. Pilato said they shot Bruno and shot Dom and that Bruno returned fire but.

[Julia Carnero]

Didn'T hit them and he started to lose control of the boat and then it crashed into a riverbank. And they ultimately dragged the bodies into the woods, dismembered them, burned them and buried them. And then they went back to their river communities and tried to conceal that they had done anything. And that's what happened.

[Terry McCoy]

And how were they caught?

[Julia Carnero]

They were caught in large part because of the extraordinary international pressure that came down upon Brazil. Bruno was a well known government researcher and more than that, Dom was an international correspondent with a lot of friends who were also international correspondents who started writing a lot of stories about this. And it brought about a large scale search and pressure to find out what happened.

[Terry McCoy]

In a statement then, President Bolsonaro called Dom and Bruno's trip, quote, an adventure that isn't recommendable for anyone. Bruno Pereira's wife, anthropologist Beatriz Matos, told Brazilian TV that she was hurt by the statements which, quote, contradict the extreme dedication, seriousness and commitment that Bruno has with his work. The police arrested Pilato Jefferson and Pilato's.

[Julia Carnero]

Brother for the murders, Palado. He said, ultimately they killed Dom because they couldn't leave it behind. Any witnesses. But the bigger reason was that he wanted to be able to take control of this fishing cabal that was laying waste to the Javari Valley. So he thought because these environmental agencies in Brazil become so weak, the only thing that was protecting this area was Bruno's work with this indigenous surveillance crew. So he thought, take away Bruno, you open up the entire area.

[Terry McCoy]

Terry went to the small community on the river where Palado lived.

[Julia Carnero]

Palado was a child of settlers who came to the Amazon to tap rubber. And in a lot of ways, the community that he came from, from were other victims of the Amazon. These people were abandoned by the government. Effectively. They were encouraged to go out there, but then just abandoned out there. And a lot of these people, you know, started living off the forest, living off the river.

[Terry McCoy]

In 2001, the area was turned into an indigenous territory. To protect the uncontacted tribes. Other riverside communities could no longer fish and hunt the way they used to.

[Julia Carnero]

There was vast violence, prolific violence between these river communities and the indigenous communities. Killings going back and forth, back and forth for years. As his hatred grew.

[Terry McCoy]

Pilato and Jefferson da Silva Lima are awaiting trial. Pilato's brother was just released after 27 months in prison. A federal court ruled there wasn't enough evidence against him.

[Julia Carnero]

Police have continued to investigate this. They think that it was not just Pelado who was acting alone. There could have been police involvement. There could have been a person who ordered the hit.

[Terry McCoy]

Last year, police arrested another man. Who is believed to be the leader of an illegal phishing network. He's been charged with ordering the murders. And then another man was arrested for assisting him. And for interfering with the investigation and intimidating witnesses. Last year, Brazil got a new president, Lula da Silva.

[Julia Carnero]

And deforestation has plunged about 40% last year. One of the great environmental success stories of the last number of years.

[Terry McCoy]

And Brazil got its first indigenous minister. Heading a newly created Ministry of Indigenous Affairs. Last year, she took a trip to the Javari Valley. Along with Dom and Bruno's wives, Alessandra Sampaio and Beatriz Matos. She told an audience of mostly indigenous people, we are here to reestablish the presence of the Brazilian government in the Javari Valley region. But some people say not much has changed.

[Julia Carnero]

The forest is still being destroyed every single day. And I've been told even that the killings did nothing to change the fundamental dynamic that's going on in that area. It's still an area of high tension, high illegality, and indigenous people under threat.

[Terry McCoy]

Today, Eliseo Morubo lives in hiding.

[Eliezio Morubo]

I live in a city that cannot be identified. But I continue working on the legal defense of my region. I have tried somehow to continue doing this. After June 5, 2022.

[Terry McCoy]

Eliseo told the Guardian that he thinks the police investigation needs to continue. He suspects there's been a cover up of the murders. And he said he believes the case goes beyond the people who've been arrested so far.

[Eliezio Morubo]

So Bruno, he was just a stone that was removed from its place. That's how organized crime works. In any case, here I am. I continue in the same fight as always until the end.

[Terry McCoy]

Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susannah Roberson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark, Lena Silason and Megan Kinane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see [e-mail] this episode was fact checked by Michelle Harris. Special thanks to journalist Julia Carnero. A group of journalists are at work completing Dom Phillips book titled how to Save the Amazon. Ask the people who know it will be out next year. We hope you'll join our new membership program Criminal Plus. Once you sign up, you can listen to Criminal episodes without any ads and you'll get bonus episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lawrence Borer too. To learn more, go to thisiscriminal.com we're on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal show and Instagram at Criminal Underscore Podcast. We're also on [e-mail] criminal podcast. Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great [e-mail] I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

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