Brazilian police are investigating the disappearance of a Dutch woman in Rio de Janeiro. According to her friends, Britt Blom, 36, left home on Saturday, December 10 to go to a party, but she never made it there. Since then all traces have disappeared.
On Wednesday, officers searched Blom’s home in São João de Meriti, a city in the Rio metropolitan region. They seized personal documents and data carriers, including a mobile phone and a computer, the newspaper reported The globe Today. Police hope that the examination of the material will provide clues that could be related to the disappearance of the Dutch woman.
According to a friend who reported her missing online to Rio de Janeiro’s tourism police, Britt sent him a text message on Saturday saying she’d be late because she had “a work problem” to deal with. She told her it wouldn’t take long. Despite this, she did not show up for the party in Coelho Neto, a neighborhood in the north of Rio. Blom also didn’t respond to messages in which she was out and about. The message was last seen, he said, on Sunday, December 11 at 5pm.
It’s not that Britt isn’t being heard, confirms another friend. “Sometimes she would be gone for a few days but then she would always let us know where she was,” the 35-year-old delivery man told news site G1.
Husband and daughter
Born in Amsterdam, Blom has lived in Brazil for about 14 years. Initially in São Paulo, about 400 kilometers to the south, where her husband and 13-year-old daughter still live. According to her friends, the Dutchman owns a property there which she rents out and also works as a translator of texts. After moving to Rio, she rented an apartment in Copacabana, the southern neighborhood of Rio with its world-famous beach. According to a friend, she then moved to São João de Meriti, in the northern area of the Baixada Fluminense, because rents are said to be lower there.
The Brazilian news site said it had no contact with the Dutch consulate general in Rio de Janeiro. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague says it is aware of the matter and is in contact with Britt Blom’s family.
The coolest places
A woman from the Amsterdam area shared the Dutch search message on Facebook today with a request to spread the message “en masse”, particularly among people with connections in Brazil, Rio and São Paulo.
Dear Britt, in 2017 you made our trip to Brazil even more special. You took us to the coolest places and with the stand up paddle we went along the Copacabana beach. I hope you show up again,” she reads in a personal message with two vacation photos. On one, Blom and the woman embrace, the other shows Blom with both the woman and her husband.
The latter wishes to provide a brief explanation. “My wife is also from Amsterdam and was in the same class as Britt in elementary school. She later moved to Blaricum, but they kept in touch. When we were on vacation in Brazil five years ago, we met her. It was very funny. By the way, we had a lot of fun lying on the beach,” he tells this news site.
Under the search notice, his wife wrote in Dutch the description of Britt Blom (1.70-1.75 meters tall, dark-blonde hair, average slim build) with the addition: she speaks fluent Brazilian and Dutch with Amsterdam accent.
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