Friday, Nov. 8, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO--The search for a young Brazilian man, missing in San Francisco, is becoming more desperate.
23-year-old Paulo Netto hasn't been seen since Monday October 28, the same day he made
a series of frantic phone calls to friends and family. And it turns out, he also made a call to Emergency dispatchers.
"
He called 911" sister Ana Reis told KTVU. It's a detail San Francisco Police Inspectors just shared with her.
A patrol car went to the Shotwell Street location of Netto's calls, but there was no sign of him. Missing Persons investigators have not released the 911- recording. But if it's like the calls Netto made
to his sister and parents, he was likely pleading for help, claiming he was in trouble an hiding from unidentified people who wanted to harm him.
Netto's friend and classmate, Kevin Viriato, received a panicked call in Los Angeles, where both are arts students. "It was like Kevin, please please help me, please help me, please help me," recalled Viriato, to KTVU. He urged Netto to call authorities. "I told him, if you're in trouble, call the police, they're the best people to help you. He's like 'Oh, oh, oh' then he hung up."
This week, Viriato retrieved Netto's laptop computer from his apartment, and turned it over to Los Angeles detectives, who sent it on to San Francisco. Inspectors are now combing it for contacts he may have made before his visit to the city. They have determined, through Netto's cell phone history, that he stayed with someone in San Francisco, when he wasn't at hotels or hostels.
Police have interviewed that person, but have not said whether he is a person of interest in the investigation.
"Somebody out there knows what happened to this kid. Somebody out there has information," Rick Smith of Canon Street Investigations told KTVU. Smith is a retired FBI agent, turned private investigator, helping Netto's family with their search. "Right now it's a sad story. It could still have a good ending, but it needs to happen fairly soon," said Smith.
For the Reis family; Ana, her parents, and an uncle, all from Rio Verde, Brazil, it is an agonizing wait for answers, but they are not giving up. They only want one thing from this six thousand mile trip, Paulo home safely.
The family plans to raise awareness by leafleting in the Mission District, on Sunday November 10. They're asking volunteers to meet them at 1p.m. in Dolores Park, and they're reaching out to fellow Brazilians in the community for help.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-...ppeared/nbnMY/