On August 13, 2005, American archaeologist James Petersen,Brazilian archaeologist Eduardo Neves, and two colleagues pulled up to a restaurant on a jungle road near Iranduba in the Brazilian Amazon to have a beer. At about 6:45 p.m., two young men, one brandishing a .38 revolver, entered the restaurant and demanded the patrons’ money. The archaeologists turned over their money and the bandits started to leave. Then, almost as an afterthought, one of them shot Petersen in the stomach. Neves and the others raced Petersen to the hospital, but their friend bled to death before they could reach help.
State and municipal police reacted quickly to the news, cordoned off roads, and brought suspects to the restaurant for identification.Within 24 hours the police had arrested the two armed bandits and their driver and learned there were two others involved. The crime was front-page news in Manaus, the capital of the state, ...
