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.
Evanilson Gomes da Costa (left) was found dead after going on the run in the wake of the murder having reportedly been shot by rival drug traffickers. Pictures show five of the nine suspects that were wanted by police
Brazilian Artur Gomes da Silva (left) has admitted to slitting the throat of Emma Kelty (right) and throwing her bullet-riddled body into a river, police say
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.
It comes after it emerged that a man arrested over the murder has admitted to slitting her throat and throwing her bullet-riddled body into a river, police say.
Brazilian Artur Gomes da Silva made his confession after being held following an anonymous tip-off, police chief Jose Barradas revealed.
The suspect was found hiding in bushes with a phone and a GPS tracker after the 43-year-old former headmistress was murdered.
His confession comes as it emerged the killers alerted authorities to their crime after unwittingly triggering a distress signal on her equipment.
Police have now recovered the former headteacher’s GPS device, as well as a mobile phone and a memory card (pictured), which the gang of seven ‘pirates’ sold to local villagers after killing her
Emma Keltys kayak has been delivered to the Amazon civil police in Manaus by the Brazil navy (pictured)
Pictures have also emerged showing what is believed to be the canoe belonging to the gang
Investigators had first thought the emergency alert which pinpointed Emma Kelty’s exact location and triggered a search operation by Brazil’s Navy had been sent by the victim herself.
But in fact the ‘SOS’ button was pressed by one of her killers who was trying to work out how to use the device they had stolen, an hour and a half after her death.
Police have now recovered the GPS device, as well as a mobile phone and a memory card.
The GPS signal sent at 10pm last Wednesday night led investigators to the riverside village of Lauro Sodre, 150 miles west of Manaus, and a manhunt which has brought about the arrest of three men accused of her murder.
A fourth man was killed yesterday in an unrelated gangfight, and three brothers are still on the run.
Search: Specialist divers (pictured) have been brought in to search for the British victim’s body
Arrest: Pictures have emerged showing two of the suspects being led away by police
Police have made a number of arrests (pictured) and recovered a number of Emma’s belongings
The adventurer, who sold her north London flat ahead of the trek, started the journey in Ecuador’s capital of Quito in June
Left: Evanilson Gomes da Costa, who was found dead after going on the run. Right: Nilson Ferreira da Silva, another of the seven suspects
One of the suspects, Artur Gomes da Silva, nicknamed Beira, was due to be flown from Coari to Amazonas state capital Manaus today and remanded in prison ahead of trial.
Mr Barradas, insisting Miss Kelty had not been decapitated as was initially reported, said: ‘It was an easy arrest. He confessed that after the British tourist’s shooting, he and another suspect slit her throat and then threw her body into the river.’
Yesterday Barradas said he doubted anyone would have discovered what happened to Ms Kelty if the ‘stupid’ gangsters hadn’t set off her emergency locator by mistake.
He said: ‘They didn’t know how it worked, so were messing around with it and pushing buttons.
‘One of them must have pushed the button which transmitted an alert that she was in trouble. In turn the company that received it alerted the Navy, along with the exact location of where the button was pushed.
‘Without that, it would have been very difficult to know where in this vast area of jungle she had gone missing.
‘It would have probably remained an unsolved mystery and her killers never brought to justice.
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
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
Emma Kelty, 43, is said to have been robbed by a gang before being blasted twice with a shotgun and her body thrown in a river
‘The place where she disappeared is a very complicated area, it’s difficult to access and there are no telephones or mobile signal. The criminals thought they could kill her in impunity, but then they stupidly pressed the only button which could have turned them in to the police.’
Mr Barradas Junior added that some of the locals who bought Ms Kelty’s stolen items from the pirates later hid them in the forest after finding out who they belonged to.
He said: ‘They were afraid that they could be arrested for being in possession of stolen property.
‘But they later took police to the places where they had hid them so the items could be recovered.’
Police believe the gang shot Ms Kelty twice with a sawn-off caliber .20 shotgun as she lay in her tent on the banks of the Solimoes river.
The Brazilian navy and police force sent ships into the Amazon in a bid to find Emma Kelty, who is believed to have been murdered. But her body has not yet been found
Pictured: A Brazilian navy helicopter flying low over the river in the hope of finding a trace of Emma Kelty
They then robbed her of her belongings before stabbing her and dumping her body in the fast-flowing waters.
Yesterday tributes to the adventurer poured in from friends and admirers on her Facebook page, which her family.
Louise Rudd, who said she spent two weeks with Ms Kelty in Chile before flying out on South Pole expeditions wrote: ‘A courageous lady with a truly adventurous spirit who was willing to give anything a go. A senseless loss.’
Another friend, Karen Rayner, wrote: ‘Emma was an inspiration grabbing everything life had to offer and challenging preconceptions, negativity and striving to break records whilst raising awareness and money for her causes.
‘Her infectious humour and love of her fellow human beings shone through in her blogs and updates. You will be sorely missed and we have lost our bright star!’
And Yasmin Momeni wrote: ‘She was truly an inspiration and encouraged me to do whatever it was in life that I had the desire to do. I had never met someone so brave and strong as Emma.’