Brit tourist goes missing after leaving Airbnb as friend spots worrying sign
While on holiday in Brazil, Denis Kopanev walked out of the Airbnb he was staying in and disappeared without a trace, with his family and friends desperately waiting to hear from him
A British man has mysteriously disappeared while on holiday in Brazil.
Denis Kopanev, 33, was staying in the Gávea neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro before he vanished. On 9 June, he was captured by CCTV leaving his Airbnb and his friends and family have not heard from him since.
As he left he was wearing a dark-coloured baseball cap, a white shirt, and a matching beige jacket and trousers. He never checked out of the holiday let, and all of his possessions were still inside - including his passport.
The day after he vanished, he was supposed to meet a friend hailing from America in São Paulo - and the pair were set to continue their adventure together, heading to a volcanic archipelago - Fernando de Noronha - which is around 215 miles off Brazil's north-eastern coast.
He had the location services for his phone turned on, and it last marked him down as being at Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon - nearby to where he was staying, but it has not provided a more up-to-date location.
Denis, a Russian-British citizen who works as a financial analyst in London, was in Brazil just six months before, so his quick return to the country likely shows just how much he loves it there.
Two days after his friends and family lost touch with the 33-year-old, he was officially reported missing to the police.
His best friend, Benone Moura, insists that his disappearance and going off-grid is seriously unusual, saying that when Denis travelled he always stayed in touch with his loved ones - and he wouldn't have moved on from Rio without looping them in to his movements.
Benone revealed that the pair last spoke in the early evening of 8 June, the day before Denis vanished.
The financial analyst's family have reported his disappearance to the British Embassy, but heartbreakingly, there has been no news yet about where he is.
Rio de Janeiro Whereabouts Discovery Unit (DDPA) are investigating Daniel's disappearance.
Denis isn't the first Brit to go missing in Brazil in recent months. Journalist Charlotte Alice Peet, 32, was missing for four months, before she was found in a São Paulo hostel, when it was reported that she had admitted that she didn't want to be in contact with her family, and the case was then closed by the local authorities.
She is said to have told a pal she was in São Paulo on 8 February, and planning to go to Rio de Janeiro, before her family stopped hearing from her, and quickly reported her missing. She was reportedly located by authorities using data from her phone.
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