Teenager arrested for murder of primary school head who vanished on Amazon canoe trip

Brazilian police have arrested a 17-year-old man for the suspected murder of a British headteacher who was canoeing alone in the Amazon.

Emma Kelty, 43, who was canoeing alone in the Amazon had written of her fears of being robbed or killed just days before she went missing.

Miss  Kelty disappeared after sending a distress signal from a position 150 miles west of the Brazilian jungle city of Manaus, a remote area known as a drug trafficking route and for pirate attacks. 

Her canoe and belongings were later found on sandbanks on the side of the Solimoes River in Brazil's northern jungle state of Amazonas.

Ms Kelty wrote in a Facebook post on September 10: “So in or near Coari (100km away) I will have my boat stolen and I will be killed too. Nice.”

Two days later, after travelling past the town, she posted: “Am in the clear. All OK”.

The adventurer, from Finchley, north-west London, was attempting to paddle from the source of the Amazon in Peru, through Brazil, to its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. 

Police said the canoeist came into difficulty on Wednesday evening when she activated an emergency locator device at 10pm when she was between the towns of Codajas and Coari, 150 miles west of Manaus.

Local police have now announced the arrest of the 17-year-old  on the suspicion of murder and theft.  Officers believe the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, attacked and killed Ms Kelty and robbed her of her valuables. They do not believe she has been kidnapped and are continuing to search for her body. The man who has been arrested was not previously known to police.

On Monday night the Brazilian Navy said 60 personnel were continuing their search for Ms Kelty, who they described as a "professional sportswoman who has experience in navigation". 

In December last year civil police chief Thyago Garcez disappeared in almost exactly the same remote stretch of the Solimoes river, after he and other policemen got into a firefight with drugs traffickers. His body has never been found.

And last month a boat, supposedly navigated by traffickers transporting drugs from Peru, was attacked by pirates who robbed the cargo after an intense gunfight in the same spot, according to reports.

Ms Kelty passed through the Brazilian border post with Colombia at Tabatinga, 500 miles from where she went missing, on August 21.

The organisation she worked for reportedly contacted the Brazilian navy on Wednesday night, informing that the canoeist appeared to have got into trouble and activated her emergency activator.

Navy search teams using a helicopter and two boats started looking for Ms Kelty on Thursday, and her canoe was located on Friday, when a team of three divers was also sent to the area to assist the Navy efforts.

Police chief Ivo Martins said: "We have already taken some of the items found on her canoe to forensics, such as clothes, some cigarette stubs and some shoes.

"We are awaiting the arrival of her canoe to look for more clues.

"Some local river people near where her canoe was found say they saw a woman rowing down the river, but they didn't know which direction she was going.

"Is it possible she fell in the river? It's possible. Is it possible that she's still alive? Yes, it's possible.

"We need to advance the investigations to find out what she was doing here, and her last steps before she disappeared.

"We cannot rule out that she was a victim of a criminal offense, or that she simply got lost. We are working with all the hypotheses."