Bandits paid for last taxi ride in blood

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Taxi driver Antonio Goncalves de Lima pulled up outside the rundown Macapa house and asked for his fare.

His passengers paid with 40 Brazilian reals ($40). and a rifle belonging to Sir Peter Blake.

Little did Mr de Lima know it then, but he had just dropped off several men who were about to have their pictures published around the world because of their involvement in the murder of an international figure and New Zealand hero.

They would step from local notoriety to become the subjects of worldwide outrage for their part in the death of the yachting legend.

After shooting Sir Peter, the Brazilian pirates had stolen his rifle and unstrapped the Omega watch from his body.

Though they managed to offload the rifle, they never got to sell the other watches, cameras, lenses or the boat they also stole.

Within 24 hours, federal police had rounded up the suspects as the people of Macapa realised the importance of what had happened on board the expedition yacht the Seamaster at its mooring in the Amazon River.

A local launch owner, Childerico Coelho, told the Weekend Herald how he was asked to take a doctor out to the Seamaster minutes after Sir Peter was shot twice in the back.

"The crew were in shock, scurrying around, running upstairs and downstairs like they didn't know what to do," said Mr Coelho. "The doctor could not do anything."

Federal police in Macapa have held six men over the murder and robbery, including Ricardo Colares Tavares, a 23-year-old on bail for an earlier robbery.

He confessed to firing twice with his pistol but says he is not sure if it was his bullets which hit Sir Peter.

Tavares' wife, Andrea Vasques de Almeida, said their house had been raided by eight masked police looking for him.

Mrs de Almeida told Brazilian reporters her husband had confessed only because he was beaten up, but the local police have dismissed this claim.

Other family members said Tavares was addicted to drugs, despite time spent in a rehabilitation clinic.

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