Mystery as Brit vanishes in Brazil as pregnant girlfriend receives chilling messages and dad says ‘I fear he’s dead’
A BRIT who has been missing in Brazil for more than a month is feared to be dead after his girlfriend received chilling texts.
Matthew Hemsley, 35, is thought to have been murdered by a gang, although a motive for the suspected killing is unknown and his body has not been found.
Matthew's loved ones believe Brazilian police have given up the search amid a lack of new clues or evidence.
Dad Mike, 71, told The Sun: "I'm struggling. Most of us are struggling. I get very emotional thinking about it. It's something you see on the news but it's different when it happens to you.
"We hope that his body is found to get some closure.
"I spoke with him two to three times a week through Whatsapp.
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"A lot of people speak with their dads about rubbish, but he would speak about geopolitics, agriculture, farming - we had good conversations. He was a lot deeper as a person than most.
“We would have lots of chats - proper discussions, not just s**t.
"I’ve been down the allotment and that’s quite difficult now. I don’t ring him and he doesn’t ring me.
“I had to take something out my wallet the other day and a picture dropped out.
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"It was taken years ago and was among my credit cards. It’s hard.”
Matthew, originally from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, disappeared in Candeias, in the state of Bahia, on May 28.
He was last seen having dinner with a pal in a local bar before heading home and leaving a voicemail message for his friend.
Mike said Matthew - who lived on a farm after moving to Brazil around seven years ago and had plans to build a new property there - was an adventurous man and would have known the risk.
Mike added: "He wouldn't have been naive to it. Unfortunately you can never be fully prepared. You take what precaution you can."
He also called his son intelligent and caring, and said: "We have lost somebody who wanted to help.
"It's a loss. It's a sad loss. He lived his life to the full while he was with us."
He said four days after Matthew vanished, his pregnant girlfriend received haunting messages.
Mike told the : "She got messages saying, 'Don't you realise your husband's been killed?
"What are you doing about getting justice?'"
It is unclear how - or even if - Matthew died, but Mike fears a gang has had him murdered.
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Police arrested a man for an unrelated crime who claims to have seen Matthew being killed, but this is yet to be verified.
Cops searched the area and discovered his passport on the farm.