Mystery deepened on Wednesday over the fate of an Australian backpacker who vanished 11 days ago in Rio de Janeiro, with police fearing he might have drowned swimming to an uninhabited island while high on drugs.
Rye Hunt’s May 21 disappearance in Rio has baffled Brazilian police and his family, which launched the #findrye social media campaign to boost the search.
Police on Wednesday revealed that the 25-year-old from Tasmania, Australia, was last spotted by a fisherman on tiny, uninhabited Contunduba Island near Rio’s famous Copacabana beach.
Reports emerged late on Wednesday in UK and Australian media outlets that he had been found alive on the island.
However, Rio police appeared to deny this, saying in a statement to reporters that they were “continuing to work to try and locate the missing Australian citizen.”
The family issued a statement saying it had not been given the news from official sources.
“We are seeing the same reports in the media — that Rye has been found. We have no confirmation of this,” the statement said.
There was also criticism on the Find Rye Hunt page on Facebook about inaccurate news reports and “spin.”
The island sighting report was a breakthrough in attempts to unravel the mystery, but the news was not necessarily good, police cautioned.
Officer Ellen Souto said in a televised news conference earlier on Wednesday that the fisherman who briefly saw Hunt said the backpacker “had been injured by [cuts from] sea shells and said he had arrived on the island by swimming.”
However, “we searched all around the island... but found no one,” she said.
She said Hunt had been taking synthetic drugs and was suffering a psychotic episode in which he had become dangerously paranoid.
Hunt and a fellow Australian backpacker been partying in Rio for several days and the drugs they were taking caused them to behave erratically, police said.
The pair went to the Rio’s Galeao International Airport to try to fly to Bolivia, the next stop on their tour of Latin America.
They had been meant to fly days later and when they got to the airport they argued and separated, police said.
Hunt was seen on airport security footage, wearing a green Boston Celtics basketball shirt and a dark hat.
He took a taxi back to the city alone and rented a short-let apartment in Copacabana.
The family said that “at approximately [6:20pm] Rye left the apartment leaving a number of personal items in the room including a laptop, travel bags, a camera and a number of other items.”
The apparent drug-fueled swim took place soon after. However, police only got a telephone call from the fisherman on Monday, more than a week after Hunt’s disappearance.
Although the search continues, Souto indicated rescue services already fear the worst.
“We are monitoring ... all unidentified, unclaimed corpses,” she said.
Hunt’s uncle and his partner were due to arrive from Australia to meet Brazilian police.
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