When Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira went missing in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest earlier this month, there were immediate concerns that something sinister was afoot.

Phillips, a fifty-seven-year-old British journalist, was an experienced freelance writer who had frequently written about Brazil for the Guardian and the Washington Post. He was preparing a book on conservation efforts in the Amazon, a place he had covered extensively over the years. His travel companion was even more familiar with the region. A longtime employee of FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio), the government entity tasked with overseeing relations between the Brazilian state and indigenous peoples, Pereira was a dogged advocate for the interests of natives deep in the rainforest.

On Wednesday, authorities announced that a suspect in custody, a local fisherman, had confessed to murdering Phillips and Pereira and burying their bodies in the jungle. The suspect led officials to the remains of both men. An intense search involving both armed forces and local brigades of indigenous volunteers thus confirmed the worst fears of everyone concerned about Phillips’s and Pereira’s safety.