Police have tracked the recent movements of a Brazilian psychologist who disappeared a month ago while walking alone in a dimly lit boatyard.
Vitoria Figueiredo Barreto, an academic reported missing on March 4, was last observed on CCTV in two separate clips released by authorities investigating her sudden vanishing.
Essex Police stated that Ms. Barreto vanished in Brightlingsea, Essex, on March 3, after meeting a friend at the University of Essex in Colchester.
The initial video shows a blurry figure believed to be Ms. Barreto walking through a field near the area where she went missing early in the morning.
The figure, clad in all black, is spotted in the distance walking across a field between Back Waterside Lane and Mill Street at 3:33 pm, an hour after being sighted in the Hurst Green region of Brightlingsea.
The second clip, the final sighting of Ms. Barreto, captures her walking through an industrial site near Brightlingsea Creek and the marina.
Investigators, upon discovering an unmoored boat drifting down the coast at Bradwell-on-Sea, suspect that Ms. Barreto may have taken the vessel.
The psychologist was last seen wearing a dark coat, a blue turtleneck jumper, light blue jeans, black trainers, and carrying a white shoulder bag with the slogan “people over profit.”
Family members closely monitoring the search, now in its fourth week, expressed feeling “scared” and “deeply concerned” for her well-being.
In a press conference statement, they mentioned that they believe she might be “distressed” or “struggling,” emphasizing the need for her return and support.
Police have renewed their call for information following the release of the CCTV footage, urging anyone who saw her in the field on March 3 or in the boatyard the next day to come forward.
Detective Superintendent Anna Granger of Essex Police stated, “While we cannot definitively confirm that it was Vitoria who untied the boat found adrift at Bradwell-on-Sea, this latest verified sighting places her closer to that location and strengthens the possibility.”
Granger added, “We are operating on the assumption that the person is Vitoria, but we are working diligently to provide her family with closure and certainty.”
