The search is on for Charlotte Peet, a British journalist who vanished in Brazil.
The 32-year-old has been missing for 11 days, according to the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (ACIE) in the South American country.
Peet was last heard from on Feb. 8, when she contacted a friend in Rio de Janeiro through WhatsApp asking for a place to stay, per a statement from the organization’s president Edmar Figueiredo. She told the friend that she was in São Paulo and was planning to visit Rio, according to Figueiredo.
“Days later, Charlotte’s family in the United Kingdom contacted this friend saying they had lost contact with the journalist,” Figueiredo shared. “The ACIE and its board appeal to the competent authorities to intensify the search to find the British journalist as soon as possible.”
The ACIE said Peet spent more than two years freelancing in Rio, and was in London last year before returning to Brazil in November.
Peet’s dad Derek Peet said the foreign correspondent did not tell family members about her latest trip to Brazil.
“I wouldn’t say that it was normal,” he told Sky News on Feb. 19. “There was something on her mind obviously, otherwise she would have let us know.”
The patriarch added the family only learned Peet had returned to Brazil when they “traced” her to London’s Gatwick Airport and found that she boarded a plane to São Paulo.
“And then the trail went cold,” he said. “I’m very concerned, but I just don’t know what’s going on. We’re just trying to pick up the pieces.”
Per Peet’s LinkedIn, she has freelanced for Al Jazeera, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard, The Times, The Independent and Meta. She has written “both breaking news stories and long-form investigative features for print and online,” according to her profile, covering current affairs, economy, health, human rights, technology and crime in Brazil.
“Fluent in Portuguese,” Peet noted in the description. “I am a versatile journalist with over nine years of experience, four of which have been spent reporting abroad.”
