Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/missing-persons/)
Attendees at the Pulitzer Center’s climate change reporting summit held up posters and spoke out to raise awareness about the disappearance of journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, who went missing in the Amazon rainforest. A suspect has since confessed to killing the men, and two bodies thought to be them have been found, according to media reports.
Disappearing people benefits the perpetrators in several ways: it considerably complicates any investigation, the person — dead or alive — remains hidden most of the time, and it can be mixed or confused with other crimes, such as kidnapping, child abduction, human trafficking, forced recruitment, murder, or desecration of a human corpse.
Attacks on Indigenous people worldwide are an important focus for investigative journalism. However, these stories of personal tragedy contain leads that can inform reporting on wider systemic issues which relate to these personal stories.