Pirate wanted for kayak Briton’s murder is shot dead himself as rival gang hunted for his loot
AN AMAZONIAN pirate who killed a British headmistress has been shot dead by rival gangsters.
Brazilian police said the key suspect in the murder of Emma Kelty was gunned down at his slum home – probably by thieves looking for the cash he stole from her.
Miss Kelty, who was trying to kayak the length of the Amazon, had pitched camp when she was attacked by four men. They blasted the 43-year-old with a sawn-off shotgun and dumped her in the river while she was still alive. Police have not yet found her body.
Evanilson Gomes da Costa, 24, confessed to killing her before going on the run. He was gunned down by rival criminals at his sister’s house and died in hospital yesterday morning.
Police said he was the leader of the Water Pirates, a gang that terrorised the area between the settlements of Coaria and Codajas. José Afonso Barradas Junior, the local police chief, said Gomes da Costa had been linked to other murders. ‘He was shot by drug traffickers,’ said the officer.
‘They knew that he had gold as well as the money belonging to the British woman, and they went there to rob him.’
Two teenagers, who are aged 17 and 19, and a man in his 20s, have been arrested over Miss Kelty’s murder.
Ivo Martins, deputy chief of police, said she had ‘no chance to anticipate what happened to her’. He added: ‘We believe the injured woman was still alive when her attackers took and threw her body into the river.
‘The gang operates like pirates and go out in a canoe looking and hunting for the chance to steal. According to the teenager who confessed to the crime, the victim was still moaning when she was launched into the water.’
Villagers in the impoverished community of Lauro Sodre close to the crime scene said the men behind her death were drug addicts. One said Gomes da Costa had told him he fired at Miss Kelty while she was in her
‘Cut up bodies of victims’
tent after mistaking her for a drug smuggler.
He said: ‘The woman was hit in the arm. She started waving frantically and screaming for help. The men fled into the forest after we all found out what they had done. We provided the police with the details and their identities. We’re all disgusted by what they have done.’
The 19- year- old suspect – Jardel Pinheiro Gomes – was captured by villagers and handed over to armed police on Tuesday afternoon.
He was apparently exhausted after hiding in the jungle for six days without food or water.
Miss Kelty left her teaching post two years ago to travel the world and in January skied to the South Pole alone.
She was a beginner kayaker and had taken self- defence classes before setting off on her Amazonian adventure in June.
The former headteacher, originally from Somerset, had been 42 days into her 4,000-mile trip. She had posted messages expressing fears for her safety.
Her last message came on Wednesday before she sent out a distress signal at 10pm.
Pirate gangs that terrorise the jungle waters have been reported to cut up the bodies of victims and dump their remains in the river to cover up their crimes.
The Amazon fire department and the Brazilian navy were yesterday continuing the search for Miss Kelty’s body, calling in a team of divers.
Miss Kelty, who was trained in sign language and taught deaf pupils, was made head of Knollmead Primary in Tolworth, Surrey, in 2013. She turned it around before leaving.