Brazil: Missing person search and disappearance court acquittal

In Brazil, two separate cases involving disappearances have drawn attention. In Cabo Frio, the family of 30-year-old artisan Marcos da Silva Bueno Almeida, known as ‘Visão’, is searching for him after he was last seen on July 12 in the Jardim Esperança neighborhood. Marcos, who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, is described as approximately 1.80 meters tall with a thin build, black curly hair, and dark brown eyes.

In Paraná, a court has acquitted three men accused of involvement in the disappearance and presumed death of 33-year-old bricklayer Marlon Adrian Souza da Silva. Marlon disappeared in September 2025 in Ponta Grossa while attempting to pay fees for a property purchase. The judge applied the ‘in dubio pro reo’ principle, stating that while the circumstances were suspicious, the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants were involved in a robbery or the concealment of a body.