Four years later, Brumadinho is still looking for 3 victims of the tragedy that killed 270 people

This week marks four years since the collapse of the dam belonging to the mining company Vale, in Brumadinho (MG). Among the families of the 270 victims of the tragedy, three are still waiting for a chance to have a wake, burial and a farewell: the bodies were not found under the sea of ​​mud.

Hoping to put an end to this chapter, the task force of firefighters and police is carrying out searches and analysis work on the traces collected in the place that was once the Córrego do Feijão Mine.

“Our loved ones do not belong in the place of tragedy. Searches are a form of reparation with victims being recovered,” says Patrícia Borelli, daughter of Maria de Lurdes da Costa Bueno, 59, a realtor from São José do Rio Pardo (SP) who was staying at a guesthouse in Brumadinho.

She, her husband, two stepchildren and her pregnant daughter-in-law were buried along with other guests, employees and the owners of the place. The plans were to pay a visit to the Inhotim museum.

The families of Nathália de Oliveira Porto Araújo, aged 25, and Tiago Tadeu Mendes da Silva, aged 34 – she, a trainee, and he, a Vale employee – are the others who are still waiting.

Over time, the concern of the firefighters and the Civil Police is that the quality of the material that still exists will be lost, due to the rains and decomposition, making it difficult to find remnants of the other victims.

in the field

Almost 6,000 military firefighters worked in the seven stages of the search. Today, the 8th stage operates with five stations, which consist of screening equipment, accompanied by firefighters who check fragments.

About 200 tons per hour are processed on each machine. Since 2019, two interruptions have got in the way: the pandemic and the heavy rains that hit Greater Belo Horizonte in late 2021 and early 2022. The work continues daily.

If for many it seems unlikely to still find mortal remains, news last December revived hope: Vale supervisor Cristiane Antunes Campus, 35 years old – the 267th victim was identified.

Relatives of the disappeared created the Commission of the Not Found – there were 11 at the beginning – and they act as a bridge between the institutions (police, firefighters and the Public Prosecutor’s Office) and the relatives of the others.

“Every family deserves to bury their family. No one can get lost there. It may take a while, we don’t know what day, it’s all in God’s time”, says Natália de Oliveira, a teacher in Brumadinho and Lecilda’s sister, identified at the end of 2021.

She and two relatives of other victims, Josiana Resende, better known as “Jojo”, and Geraldo Resende, take information to the other families, even after their loved ones have already been located.

“I am always very moved, they are very affectionate with my family, they always represent and honor my mother in my absence”, says Patrícia, who lives in the United States and wants to visit the group in Brumadinho in April.

In the lab

Because of time, the biological material that leaves the mine and arrives at the Instituto Médico-Legal (IML) is more deteriorated, reports the coroner responsible for the identifications from 2019 to August 2022 at the Minas Gerais Police, Ricardo Araújo.

He was on the board of the IML until the disaster, when he was assigned to carry out identifications and maintain contact with families.

Among the scientific methods used are papilloscopy (fingerprint), examination of the dental arch and DNA. In the first week, the fingerprint was able to recognize 79 victims, and in the first month, around 120.

But, given the type of accident, many were mutilated, which means that different parts of the same person are found at different times.

The re-identifications, since the beginning, have already surpassed the number of first identifications. It means that more parts of the same victim were found than different people.

There are 1,003 cases taken by the search front until December, out of a total of 270 affected, a reflection of the segmentation of the bodies.

It was necessary to create a database with the fingerprints of the disappeared, to carry out the recognition through a biometric reader. There were also interviews with the families to find out about characteristics, such as tattoos, dental treatments, DNA collection and an active search in hospitals and clinics for examinations of the victims.

Now, fingerprints and dental elements no longer work and DNA testing is used. But since the biological material used also decomposes, it is necessary to analyze hard tissues, such as bones.

For Araújo, it will be possible to identify all of them. “Technologically we are prepared and we do not work with a deadline”.

There are still families who accompany the searches with the expectation that more parts of the family members will be found. “What was found of their relative was so little that they didn’t want to put it in the coffin”, says Natália, from the Commission.

Difference between Vale and relatives of the dead postpones the opening of the memorial

The inauguration of the memorial that will honor the 270 dead at the dam in Brumadinho had its inauguration postponed because of a disagreement between the victims’ families and the mining company Vale. The initial forecast was that the space would open to the public in January.

Families say the company tries to prevent them from running the memorial.

“The impasse is that unfortunately we were unable to agree with Vale on the governance of the memorial. She wants to be part of it, and we don’t accept it. It makes no sense for the company that killed to integrate the governance of a space that will honor the victims”, says chemistry technician Nayara Cristina Porto Ferreira, 30 years old.

She has been on the board of the Association of Relatives of Victims and People Affected by the Tragedy of the Córrego do Feijão Mina Dam Failure (Avabrum) since its founding in 2019, and is the widow of Everton Lopes Ferreira, who was a forklift operator at Vale.

He also left an 11-year-old daughter from his first relationship.

Vale says, in a note, that it is “in constant dialogue” with Avabrum, which represents the families. Still according to the company, the dialogue has the participation of the Public Ministry of Minas Gerais on all aspects necessary for the management of the space and there was an active listening of the family members.

Proposal

Regarding the memorial works, the structural part is in the final adjustments, and the next phase is to assemble the expography (the content to be exposed). With 1,200 m² of built area, the space was built on land provided by Vale, which paid for the works, facing the mountain where the dam that collapsed was located, in Córrego do Feijão.

The project is rich in symbology. The entrance pavilion has a distorted and fragmented shape and represents the dream of the victims, describes on its website the Minas Gerais architect Gustavo Penna, who designed the memorial.

Next, a dark environment, lit only by cracks in the ceiling, represents the invasion of mud. In the concrete, some metal parts removed from the rubble are incorporated, providing shade and protection.

A further 272 yellow ipês were planted, “so that every cry can be heard”, according to Penna. There are 270 deaths in total, but the families also include two babies in the account, since two victims were pregnant.

The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.