The last picture of a missing Brazilian academic has been released by police who are exploring the possibility that she took a boat from an Essex boatyard.
Vitoria Figueiredo Barreto, 30, has not been in contact with loved ones since March 3 after she met a friend at Essex University in Colchester.
Ms Figueiredo Barreto had been helping her friend Liliane Silva, a PhD student and lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Essex, with a written project at the Colchester campus before the pair parted ways.
Chilling footage was previously released of Ms Figueiredo Barreto boarding a bus hours before she was last seen – with her tote bag found near a boatyard a week later.
Police have now issued a new CCTV image showing a person, believed to be Ms Figueiredo Barreto, apparently jumping over a fence into the boatyard just after midnight on March 4.
The force said officers are ‘aware of a boat having been taken from its mooring in Brightlingsea’ in the early hours of March 4.
The desperate search continued this week with teams of police, coastguards and volunteers combing the banks and estuary of the River Colne near Colchester after her anxious family arrived from South America.
Scouring hundreds of square miles of land and water, the search was extended to take in the Rivers Blackwater and Crouch further down the Essex coast.
Police have issued a new CCTV image showing a person, believed to be Vitoria Figueiredo Barreto, apparently jumping over a fence into the boatyard just after midnight on March 4
Ms Figueiredo Barreto, 30, has not been in contact with loved ones since March 3 after she met a friend at Essex University in Colchester
‘We know the boat had been located on a drift in the water close to Bradwell-on-Sea and returned to Brightlingsea,’ an Essex Police spokesperson said.
‘It is the subject of a police search.’
Police said the discovery of Ms Figueiredo Barreto’s bag on Monday, near to where the boat was unmoored, ‘has meant that our focus on this line of inquiry has clearly intensified’.
The psychologist made a 30-minute bus journey from Wivenhoe to the coastal town of Brightlingsea on the afternoon of March 3.
At that time, Ms Figueiredo Barreto was wearing a dark coat, a blue turtleneck jumper, light blue jeans and dark trainers with white soles.
She was carrying a white shoulder tote bag with the words ‘people over profit’ on it.
The force has since released an image of CCTV footage from the boatyard, taken at 12.16am on March 4, which is the last sighting of Ms Figueiredo Barreto
‘Between 12.16am and 12.36am, when we know the boat was unmoored, Vitoria is not seen on CCTV and at this stage there is no clear and identifiable footage of the person who unmoored the boat,’ Essex Police said.
‘However, we are exploring the possibility that it is Vitoria.
‘The boat’s route from Brightlingsea to where it was found close to Bradwell has consistently informed the searches which have been carried out.’
Ms Figueiredo Barreto’s mother, Gleyz Bezerra Figueiredo Barreto, and Ms Barreto’s partner, Janilson Gomes Da Silveira, attended a police press conference on Tuesday, along with her friend, Ms Silva.
Ms Figueiredo Barreto’s friend, Ms Silva, said the psychologist ‘probably is not in a good place’, adding: ‘She is probably out of her mind, upset, struggling, we don’t know really why.’
Two CCTV stills show Vitoria stepped onto the number 87 bus on Boundary Road in Wivenhoe, Colchester, just after 1pm and got off 30 minutes later at Bellfield Avenue, Brightlingsea
The Brazilian had been visiting her friend Liliane Silva and staying at her home in Southend, Essex
Vitoria’s friend Liliane Silva (left) put a comforting arm around Ms Figueiredo Barreto’s mother, Gleyz Bezerra Figueiredo Barreto (right) as they spoke to the media on Tuesday. Ms Figueiredo Barreto’s boyfriend Janilson Gomes Da Silveira Filho walks behind them
Ms Silva said she saw Ms Barreto ‘just before she took the bus’ and that she was ‘really concerned, really worried’.
She said Ms Barreto had not said she was going to leave, and that she had not been to Brightlingsea before.
Ms Silva said she believed Ms Barreto was ‘struggling’, adding: ‘We don’t want to judge it now, we just want her with us.
‘She needs to feel protected, she needs to feel loved.’
She said that when she last saw her ‘she was quiet, which is just not her – she’s always talkative’.
Ms Silva said she believed Ms Barreto may have travelled to Brightlingsea in error.
‘In our opinion she got it (the bus) on the wrong side of the road, the Brazilian side, and headed here, Brightlingsea,’ she said.
‘That’s what happened in our opinion.’
Ms Barreto had been staying in the Southend area with Ms Silva.
Detective Superintendent Anna Granger said officers have searched a ‘hugely significant area of land and coastline’.
‘With the help of air support services, our marine unit and specialist search officers, the coastline along the River Blackwater, Dengie peninsula and River Crouch were searched, along with 2.5km on the southern coast of Mersea Island,’ she said.
‘We will continue to focus on specific search areas tomorrow.
‘I would also urge anyone with CCTV of the harbour area that we are not already aware of to please check it and let us know.
‘Equally, to the owners of boats moored in Brightlingsea, please check your vessels.
‘Is there anything there that shouldn’t be there.
‘Is there anything to lead you to believe someone has been on your boat?
‘Our determination to find Vitoria remains incredibly strong.
‘We know the huge concern her loved ones have for and that is what’s driving on each and every officer involved.’
