Headteacher murdered on Amazon kayak trek
Gang killed her for GoPro camera hours after she had joked about dangers on trip
A BRITISH headmistress has been murdered while kayaking alone in a remote and lawless part of the Brazilian rainforest.
Emma Kelty, 43, is said to have been robbed by a gang of men before being blasted twice with a sawn-off shotgun and her body thrown in a river.
Two men and a 17-year- old boy have been arrested in connection with the murder, and local police are hunting for four other men.
The thieves tried to sell her belongings, including a GoPro camera, two mobile phones and tablet computer. Her body has not yet been found.
Miss Kelty vanished last week as she attempted to kayak more than 4,000 miles from the source to the mouth of the Amazon. There were fears she had been kidnapped by drug traffickers or gangs who harvest human organs.
But the arrested teenager is said to have told the Amazonas Civil Police that she was attacked as she pitched her tent on the banks of the Solimoes, as the upper stretches of the Amazon are known.
In a statement, he claimed the gang first took her possessions before killing her and dumping her in the river.
Miss Kelty had left her job as a headmistress at a Surrey primary school to travel the world, and this year became the sixth woman to ski alone to the South Pole.
But she had dismissed warnings from those who urged her not to tackle the Amazon alone, particularly as she was new to kayaking.
The Bristol University graduate had been posting updates online and tracking her progress by GPS, but the messages stopped and the trail ended in the notorious drugsmuggling route between the small towns of Coari and Codajas.
In a chilling post written a few days before she disappeared, she said: ‘So in or near Coari (100km away) I will have my boat stolen and I will be killed too. Nice.’
She had also spoken of coming across boats full of locals armed with machetes, guns and arrows, and had previously said the crocodiles, piranhas and snakes might well be the ‘least of my worries’.
Her last message was sent on Wednesday before she sent out a distress signal at 10pm.
The last message read: ‘Such a dramatic change in one day... but such is the river... every kilometre is different and just because one area is bad doesn’t mean next is.’ The day before she vanished she had told her followers: ‘Am in the clear. All OK.’
Before her trip, she wrote on her blog: ‘I have had folks, friends and strangers telling me not to do it, it’s stupid, it’s too dangerous... it’s too risky and I will die.’ A local
‘Ruthless and bloodthirsty’
blogger said: ‘Everybody is afraid of travelling through that stretch because of the pirate attacks. They are ruthless and bloodthirsty.’
Last night Miss Kelty’s siblings Piers, Giles and Natasha said in a statement: ‘Emma was an active and determined sister... In a world that is today a much smaller place, the explorer in our sister found herself seeking ways to prove that challenges were achievable. We are extremely proud of our sister who was dearly loved by us all and her strength will be sorely missed.’
Miss Kelty, originally from Somerset, had sold her North London flat before her trek, which started in Ecuador’s capital of Quito in June. She had been sleeping in her tent and carrying all of her supplies with her. Police released photos of her abandoned kayak and belongings at the weekend and said clothing and cigarette butts found close by would be analysed.
The scene of her disappearance was also where a local police chief vanished last year after a gunfight with drug traffickers.
Miss Kelty, who was trained in sign language and taught deaf pupils, was appointed head of Knollmead Primary School in Tolworth, Surrey, in 2013 after it was rated inadequate by Ofsted that year. But after the school was rated outstanding by inspectors she left the position and later began travelling the world.
The Foreign Office said last night that it was supporting her family and was in contact with the Brazilian authorities.