British headteacher murdered while canoeing along the Amazon “was sexually assaulted by gang who tried to cut off her head with a machete before dumping her body in the river”

Desdemona Despair

By Gerard Couzens and Matt Roper
21 September 2017

(Daily Mail) – A British headteacher murdered while canoeing along the Amazon was tortured and sexually assaulted by a gang before being killed and dumped in the river, it has been claimed.

Horrific new details of the last moments of Emma Kelty’s life were revealed in a confession made by one of the suspects shortly after the British kayaker’s death.

Evanilson Gomes da Costa was found dead after going on the run in the wake of the murder having reportedly been shot by rival drug traffickers.

But before he died – and just hours after the death of Miss Kelty – the 24-year-old told a local villager what the gang had done, it has been claimed.

One of the men, Artur Gomes da Silva, claimed he tried to decapitate the headteacher with a machete.

José Afonso Barradas Jr, police chief in the city of Coari, northwestern Brazil, said: “He claimed he tried to cut her head off with a machete but failed.”

The villager said da Costa had told him how his gang had come across Miss Kelty’s tent and, believing it to belong to drug traffickers, had opened fire from 50m away.

The unnamed villager added: “The woman was hit in the arm. She started waving frantically and screaming for help.”

But still believing she was transporting drugs, they approached the tent and started attacking her, cutting off her hair with a knife as they ordered to hand over narcotics.

One of the group then slit her throat before all four men “sexually abused her”, the villager said.

Her body was then dumped in the Amazon before the men fled. Villagers provided police with their details and identities, he added. [more]

British headteacher murdered while canoeing along the Amazon ‘was sexually assaulted by gang who tried to cut off her head with a machete before dumped her body in the river’