Monday, January 29, 2007
Former Miss Brazil is Missing
From FOX News
Police said this weekend they weren't discarding the possibility that human trafficking played a role in the disappearance of a former Miss Brazil who hasn't contacted her family since September.
Taiza Thomsen, 24, represented Brazil at the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama. The last time she spoke to her parents, she said she was in London.
"At this moment we can't rule out anything, not even the possibility she was a victim of human trafficking," police investigator Marcos David Salem told Brazilian TV.
Police began investigating the case Friday, after Thomsen's family reported her missing the previous day. Police said they had no leads.
Thomsen's family has said that in some of their conversations before she went missing, she left them with the feeling that she was being threatened. The family did not elaborate.
According to some of her friends, Thomsen had worked briefly in Belgium and there was a possibility she was still there, media reported.
A friend said Saturday that she talked to Thomsen over the phone about three months ago, Brazil's RBS TV reported. The friend, who was not identified, said Thomsen was planning to marry a Polish man she met in England. The friend also said Thomsen was not talking to her parents because she fought with them, RBS said.
Following her time as Miss Brazil, Thomsen moved to Sao Paulo in 2005 from her hometown of Joinville, 250 miles south of Sao Paulo. She said at the time she would work as a model.
A journalism student with bright blue eyes and long dark hair, Thomsen inherited the title of Miss Brazil in 2002 when titleholder Joseane Oliveira acknowledged being married and was stripped of her crown.
Labels: Miss Universe