Brazilian police hunt for British woman who disappeared from remote village near 'alternative community'

Brazilian police are searching for a British woman who disappeared after reportedly going to meditate in a remote wooded area.

Katherine Sarah Brewster, 27, is thought to have been staying near an ‘alternative community’ in the village of Dom Jose in Alpestre in the southern state of Santa Catarina.

According to local reports Ms Brewster, who is originally from Sussex, went for a walk in a remote wooded area to meditate last Sunday and never returned.

It was suggested she may have been staying at a permaculture commune popular with backpackers, but UniPermacultura Dom Jose denied she was ever a guest.

In a statement published on its Facebook page, UniPermacultura said: “Katherine Sara Brewster, of English nationality, was not a student, nor a guest, nor a resident of the unipermacultura or of Dom José, as well as at no time attended our dependencies or had contact and dialogue with some Member in our institution.

“We do not know her and we had no knowledge of who she was, we only know that she resided as a guest in the house of the couple Luis Alfredo vasconcelos and Nelly, who live in the rural village of Dom José and have no connection, nor lived in the ecovillage The same name of the rural community, but it is not local.

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“What we do know is that she came after a friend who was a guest and friend of the couple.”

The statement said it wasn’t known if Ms Brewster had left without warning and saying goodbye or had gone to meditate in the woods nearby, as she had done a few times.

It added that the community of Dom José “is made up of quiet and quiet families and that there are no cases of violence or police presence since we moved to the community 3 years ago”.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “Our staff are assisting the family of a British woman who has been reported missing in Brazil and are in contact with the local police.”