Police searching for missing Brazilian psychologist Vitoria Barreto say her bank cards haven’t been used since the day she arrived in Brightlingsea.
Vitoria, 30, was last seen on CCTV on Oliver’s Wharf in the early hours of March 4, having travelled to Brightlingsea by bus the previous afternoon.
Since then, Essex police have been working on the theory that she may have reached Bradwell on a boat that was released from its pontoon mooring in Brightlingsea Harbour early on March 4. However, they say are “still not yet able to confirm with a high degree of certainty” that a person seen on CCTV rowing towards the pontoon, or the person who untied the boat – later found adrift near Bradwell – was Vitoria.
Since then, police have carried out extensive searches of the Bradwell area and surrounding coastline using uniformed officers, detectives, police search teams and specialist partners. Last month, family and friends released a photograph and revealed a sighting of a person who it’s thought could have been Vitoria, but this remains unconfirmed.
Brazilian authorities are understood to have been slow to release Vitoria’s banking and phone records, but this week police revealed that they had gained access to “a limited number of bank transactions through international systems”.
A statement added: “These show normal and expected use of her bank cards up until March 3, with all transactions recorded after that date being consistent with pre-planned subscription payments.”
Detective Superintendent Anna Granger, who is leading the investigation, said: “Over the past two months, teams have carried out extensive physical searches and detailed investigative work, including pursuing reported sightings for provenance and further substantiation while also working internationally to get information that may help us build a full picture of her movements and circumstances.”
She added: “Although significant work has already taken place, the passage of time does not lessen the importance of new information coming forward. We would ask residents, particularly in Bradwell but also in Brightlingsea, to check sheds, garages and outbuildings on their properties. Even the smallest piece of information could be important.”
In an interview on Brazilian news channel O Povo News, Vitoria’s uncle, Adalaberto Barreto, a psychiatrist, said that at the time of her disappearance, his neice was “very tired” and “wasn’t sleeping a lot” but added that she didn’t have a history of depression.
He suggested that because she travelled “a lot” she may have been suffering from “traveller syndrome”, which he described as a “kind of burnout”. This might have led, he suggested, to feelings of persecution and a desire to “isolate herself”. The interview, with English translation, can be seen on YouTube.
• Essex Police has a dedicated portal through which any information as to Vitoria’s whereabouts can be reported. Alternatively, anyone with information can call 999, quoting incident 622 of 4 March.
