DNA tests have confirmed that body parts discovered in Patagonia, Argentina, are those of 36-year-old Portuguese hiker Nélson Moreira da Silva.
A long-term resident in France, da Silva went missing in June as he set out on a 7 km walk in the El Bolson area.
His French girlfiend Charline Godart is convinced he fell victim to organ traffickers, as Nélson’s head and legs have been recovered, but his arms and trunk remain missing.
Argentine investigators also found no blood traces, nor have any of the dead man’s clothes been recovered, reports e-global website.
Nonetheless, Argentina’s prosecutor insists the death was an “accident” and that the dismembering resulted from the body being pulled apart by “animals that inhabit that area of Patagonia”.
The family are not buying it.
Said Charline Godart, they believe Argentine authorities are “hiding something.
“Right from the beginning this case has been strung out. We still don’t have the results of the autopsy”, she told e-gobal.
Requests for help – by Godart to the French embassy, and by the da Silva family to the Portuguese embassy – have fallen on stony ground.
E-global explains the French embassy says it cannot intervene because the dead man was not French, and the Portuguese embassy says its hands are tied because he lived “too many years in France”.
Daniel da Silva, Nélson’s brother has since launched an online petition (click here) calling for justice which has already raised over 2,690 signatures.
