New pictures have emerged of missing British journalist Charlotte Peet on a bus to Rio de Janeiro and at a bar near to the city’s famous Copacabana beach, as police continue to investigate her mystery disappearance.
Earlier this week investigators said the 32-year-old had been seen boarding a bus from Sao Paulo to Rio after conflicting reports suggested she had booked tickets but failed to make the journey.
Overnight the last-known sighting of Charlotte, who flew to Brazil without telling her family, was identified as the Morro da Babilonia which is a hill in Rio’s Leme neighbourhood separating Copacabana beach from the neighbourhood of Botafogo that is also home to a slum area of the same name.
Brazilian media outlet Globo published a photo of Charlotte it said was taken on February 15 at an unnamed beach bar on a street called Gustavo Sampaio Street, near Leme Beach and a short walk from the famous Copacabana Beach.
It also published a snap of her on the bus she took from Sao Paulo’s Tiete Bus Terminal to Rio a week earlier.
Police sources have told Brazilian media Charlotte reached Rio on the night of February 8 and stayed at a hostel in Copacabana until February 17 before moving onto another one in the neighbourhood of Botafogo where she stayed until Monday.
It was not immediately clear this morning how cops have managed to establish her last-known location was Morro da Babilonia, where the slum area was occupied by police in 2009 with the intention of making it a model community by installing so-called police pacification units after years of control by violent drug traffickers.
New pictures have emerged of missing British journalist Charlotte Peet on a bus to Rio de Janeiro
Charlotte Peet was also pictured at a bar near to the city’s famous Copacabana beach
Earlier this week investigators said the 32-year-old had been seen boarding a bus from Sao Paulo to Rio after conflicting earlier reports pointing to her booking tickets but failing to make the journey
Investigators say they have details of Charlotte’s two phones and are thought to have been using at least one of them to geo-track her movements as well as carrying out work on the ground.
The probe into her disappearance has now been taken over by a Rio de Janeiro police missing persons unit following confirmation she reached the city nearly 10 days after a friend reported her disappearance to cops.
Police chief Elen Souto told local media: ‘The main line of inquiry is a voluntary disappearance.
‘We have two telephone numbers for Charlotte.
‘She is receiving messages and calls on the English number but the Brazilian number, a Sao Paulo number, is programmed not to receive calls.’
She added: ‘We’ve already sent images of her, from the time she reached Rio and from other places around the city, to the Missing Persons Facial Recognition Programme which is a partnership between the Civil Police and the Military Police.’
Charlotte, who had worked as a freelance journalist in Brazil for two years, is said to have returned to the South American country in November but didn’t tell her worried family.
Just four days before she left Sao Paulo she had shared a message in a Facebook group about renting apartments in London.
She wrote: ‘Hello. I’m looking for a double room in South West/East London: East Dulwich, Brixton, Herne Hill, Clapham, Balham, Streatham, Camberwell etc or would consider venturing east to the right place.
‘I’m a 32-year-old journalist, friendly, respectful and organised. I love reading, keeping active and chatting to friends.
‘Let me know if I sound like a good fit! Thanks.’
Initial reports said Charlotte was last seen or heard of on February 8 after messaging a female friend who formally reported her missing to say she was in Sao Paulo but was heading to Rio and was looking for somewhere to stay.
The Rio-based friend told Charlotte she was unable to help and said she became concerned after she failed to respond to her follow-up messages and her family made unsuccessful attempts to reach her.
Although the missing persons report was originally lodged in Rio de Janeiro it was passed on to police in Sao Paulo before bouncing back to officers in Rio now her last-known movements in the city have been confirmed.
After news first emerged at the start of last week of her disappearance, the Brazilian Press Association called on police to step up their search for Charlotte.
Association president Edmar Figueiredo, an experienced Brazilian TV journalist, said in a statement it was concerned about the disappearance, adding: ‘Charlotte spent more than two years in Rio de Janeiro where she worked as a freelance correspondent.
Charlotte, who had worked as a freelance journalist in Brazil for two years, is said to have returned to the South American country in November but didn’t tell her worried family
Cops launch urgent appeal for Brit journalist Charlotte Alice Peet, 32, missing in Brazil
‘After heading back to London, she returned to Brazil last November.
‘On February 8 she contacted a female friend in Rio via WhatsApp.
‘She said she was in Sao Paulo and was planning to head to Rio and needed a place to stay.
‘The friend replied saying that unfortunately she couldn’t put her up.
‘Several days later Charlotte’s family in the UK contacted this friend saying they had lost contact with her.
‘To help in the ongoing search for Charlotte, they have provided information about her flight to Brazil as well as a passport photo.’
It was subsequently reported detectives in Rio’s tourist police department made several calls to Charlotte’s phone but none were answered.
Charlotte’s father Derek Peet has told Sky News she flew back to the South American country without telling her family.
He said last week: ‘I wouldn’t say that it was normal, there was something on her mind obviously otherwise she would have let us know.’
Saying she had been traced to Gatwick Airport after her mum reported her missing to police where she was found to have boarded a flight to Sao Paulo, he added: ‘It’s very worrying but I don’t have any more to say, I’m very concerned but I just don’t know what’s going on, we’re just trying to pick up the pieces really.’
Hospitals and morgues have so far been checked as part of the search.
Charlotte’s family have also provided investigators with her bank account details and IMEI tracking information for her phone.
Charlotte’s family have also provided investigators with her bank account details and IMEI tracking information for her phone
Charlotte studied philosophy at the University of Bristol before doing a masters degree in international journalism at City St George’s, University of London.
Her LinkedIn page says she worked as a reporter for the Rio Times for seven months in 2020 before becoming a foreign desk intern at The Times.
She went to work as a freelance journalist for more than five years in Brazil and London before starting to work in March last year as an editorial team lead for data generation platform Mindrift.
The Morro da Babilonia favela, which is the Brazilian word for slum, was founded at the beginning of the 19th century when the army set up an observation post on the hill in Leme and ordinary soldiers built the first shacks to stay on the hill.
It started to become more and more popular with tourists after police occupied the area.
Films have been shot there, including one which won an Oscar for best foreign movie.
A September 2022 report by Argentinian newspaper Ambito Financiero described it as Rio’s ‘most peaceful’ favela.
A local resident quizzed by one of its correspondents during a visit said there was still drug trafficking going on but no shootings.
But he went on to warn the journalist not to approach another neighbouring slum called Chapeu Mangueira because it was home to dangerous armed gangs.
