São Paulo Police Rule Out Reported Sighting of Missing Maranhão Siblings

Overview

• After onsite checks in República, São Paulo, detectives confirmed the children seen at a hotel were not Ágatha Isabelly and Allan Michael.
• Search teams remain focused on dense forest, the opposite bank of the Rio Mearim and nearby lakes in Bacabal, using tracking dogs, helicopters and Navy sonar.
• A multi-agency operation that has involved more than a thousand personnel is now scaled to targeted deployments as teams stay on standby for new leads.
• Officials publicly refuted rumors that the children were sold and said the mother and stepfather are not suspects, warning that spreading false information can be a crime.
• The siblings' 8-year-old cousin, Anderson Kauã, who was found alive on January 7, guided teams to a collapsed hut near the river, supporting the main line that the pair got lost in the mata.