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1 year ago
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A Brazilian man who mysteriously vanished 13 days ago during business trip in Switzerland has been found alive after he escaped from his captors, his family has claimed.
Márcio Rodrigues, 44, contacted his wife and sister on Tuesday and they were able to reach out to some friends, who located him and accompanied him to the police.
'We contacted a couple of friends, who were close to where Márcio was, and they took him to the police station,' Rodrigues' brother-in-law Carlos Cera told Brazilian online news outlet G1.
Rodrigues filed a police report and was instructed not to reveal any details of the investigation, according to Cera.
Cera declined to provide information on how his brother-in-law managed to flee.
No arrests had been reported as of Wednesday.
Brazilian businessman Márcio Rodrigues (with his wife Ana Cera) took a flight in São Paulo, Brazil on November 7 and connected in Barcelona the following day for a flight to Switzerland to finalize a deal he had set up online with investors who were interested in therapeutic products before he went missing. He was found alive Tuesday after escaping from his captors
Prior to going missing, Brazilian native Márcio Rodrigues sent a photo of passengers waiting at the arrivals gate after stepping off the airplane in Zurich, Switzerland on November 8
One of the last photos that Rodrigues sent his wife was of the airplane parked outside Zurich Airport's arrival gate November 8
Rodrigues boarded a flight to São Paulo on November 7 and connected in Barcelona for a flight to Zurich, landing there November 8 for to complete a deal he had set up online with investors who were interested in his therapeutic products.
While at the airport, he first sent his wife, Ana Cera, a message at 5:45 am local time in Brazil.
Eleven minutes later, he expressed concerns about being unable to speak English.
His wife said he was going to contact a Spanish-speaking person to serve as a translator in Switzerland.
Brazilian businessman Márcio Rodrigues had been missing in Switzerland since November 8 and was found alive Tuesday after he escaped from his captors. The 44-year-old had traveled to Zurich to complete a business deal and sent his wife an audio telling her that he feared he had been the victim of a scam before he disappeared
Three hours would pass before Cera got another message from her husband, who once complained about the language barrier and that he needed to locate his two luggage bags, including one containing the therapeutic products.
Five hours elapsed before Cera heard again from Rodrigues, who sensed something about the transcontinental business trip was off.
In an audio message sent at 1:32 pm, he told her he felt he had fallen victim to a scam and that his passport had been taken away while was still at the airport.
'Pray for me, because I think I fell into a trap. My God, in half an hour I'll know what's going to happen to me,' Rodrigues told his wife. They said that in 15 minutes, half an hour, they will bring me my passport. But I've been waiting here for almost four hours.
'I met with them, they took a photo of my face," he said. "(They) brought a machine to take my fingerprints and took my passport (to be scanned).'
Rodrigues sent his wife another message at 1:34pm before he stopped responding to her messages because his cellphone had been shut off.
English (US)