Percy Fawcett Expedition

Case background and investigation

In April 1925, Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a 57-year-old British explorer and veteran of numerous South American expeditions, set out from Cuiabá, Brazil with his 21-year-old son Jack and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimmell to search for what he called the 'Lost City of Z'—an ancient civilization he believed existed in the unexplored jungles of the Mato Grosso. The expedition was financed by a London-based group of investors and backed by the Royal Geographical Society.

Fawcett's last communication was a letter to his wife Nina, dispatched on May 29, 1925, from a point he called 'Dead Horse Camp' on the edge of unexplored territory. In it, he wrote that they were about to enter territory inhabited by indigenous groups and that their animals were failing. He instructed that no rescue expedition be sent if they did not return, as it would be too dangerous. After this letter, the three men were never heard from again.

Despite Fawcett's wishes, over 100 expeditions have ventured into the area over the following decades to search for the party or determine their fate. At least 13 people died in these rescue attempts. Various theories have been proposed: that the party was killed by hostile indigenous groups, that they succumbed to disease or starvation, or that Fawcett chose to live among the indigenous people. Several indigenous groups in the area have offered conflicting accounts, some claiming to have seen or killed the explorers.

In 1951, the Kalapalo people told Orlando Villas-Bôas that they had killed the Fawcett party, producing bones they claimed were Fawcett's, but forensic analysis determined the bones were not his. David Grann's 2009 book 'The Lost City of Z' and the 2016 film of the same name brought renewed attention to the case. Archaeologists have since confirmed that significant pre-Columbian settlements did exist in the area, suggesting Fawcett's theory about an advanced civilization was not entirely unfounded. The fate of the Fawcett expedition remains one of exploration's greatest mysteries.