US travel-blogger family missing in Brazil

Sao Paulo, Brazil — An American couple travel-blogging through South America are missing in Brazil along with their two small girls after pirates attacked their boat, authorities said Wednesday.

The Americans, who recently lived in the southern resort and university city of Florianapolis, disappeared Sunday near the town of Breves in Para state, a Para public safety ministry statement said.

They went missing after assailants attacked their boat on the water, while they were on a trip from Belem to Macapa in the northeastern state, it added.

Police said they responded to a call that the boat and its tow cart were located in Porto dos Dias, but neither the family nor the suspects were there.

The missing were named as Adam Harris Hateau, 39, Emily Faith Hateau, 37, and two young daughters about three and seven.

Police said they were searching for the family.

The couple had been writing a travel blog since 2012, local media reported.

It was the second case in recent months of tourists disappearing in Brazil’s vast northern Amazon basin, a region of steamy jungles and endless tributaries.

A British woman going down the Amazon by kayak was murdered in September.