A few days ago @Sector035 was tagged in a tweet about the d…

@MsSilvaNinja already deleted the tweet. I'll still share some an overview for whomever is interested in this case. Otherwise the time I have spent on this was in vain.

On December 27, 2020 three boys: Lucas Matheus da Silva (8), Fernando Henrique Ribeiro Soares (11) and Alexandre da Silva (10) disappeared in Belford Roxo, RJ (Brazil). They had gone to the football pitch next to their house in the Castelar neighborhood.

On Sunday Dec 27, 2020 around 10:30 am (local time) they left their house to go to a football (soccer) pitch to play as they’d done many times before. They’d return home around lunch time between 12 and 2pm, but they didn’t show up.

The boys live on Castelar hill in an apartment complex -22.750641493852445, -43.39909563311383 in a report by RJ2 they show the outside of the housing complex and the court where they were last seen.

The football pitch is right next to the housing complex -22.75121731682132, -43.39981678017921 but there is another pitch a bit further up north as well. Yet all reports suggest it was the former immediately next to their home.

The grandmother told El País that the boys’ friends saw them at Feira de Areia Branca, a market selling mostly contraband, that is located almost 1km from their house. They allegedly went there to buy bird food. https://t.co/K1hc9XZO4J

The RJ2 portal of Globo says that on Jan 7 the police went to the football court where the 3 were last seen. It also mentions that their friend last saw them on the court and that they left through a hole in the wall that was closed shortly after their disappearance

and went walking on a trail in the bushes towards the market in Areia Branca, a 2 km walk [acc to the news channel, acc to GE it'd take anywhere between 1 and 2 km].

Fernando Henrique is said to have had 4 reais to buy bird food at the market. Acc to RJ2, “that’s the only concrete clue that the police have [at the time this was filmed]”.

In an interview to RJ2 police chief (delegado) Uriel Alcântara said, “there are no cameras inside the [Castelar] neighborhood nor around it. Our solve ratio of disappearances is around 90%.

This situation [where there is no concrete trace is very atypical and breaks the pattern that we normally encounter [in such cases].”
https://t.co/Y1GuDL7wTY

In other words, except for the fact that they left the court through a hole and took a trail through the bushes immediately outside the apartment complex, the police did not have any concrete evidence about where the boys had passed on their way to the market.

It is unclear how many neighbors in the surrounding area the police have spoken to, but one would assume that someone saw them on their way from the pitch to the market. The bushes don’t cover the entire way to the market.

Most of the way crosses residential areas and it is densely populated. It wouldn't be surprising if someone had seen 3 boys fitting their description on that day.

“According to the family, [people] had seen them at the market, but we didn’t find imagery that captured them, nor did we find witnesses who actually saw the boys or who can confirm they saw them unequivocally”,

the police chief said to Extra but added that he cannot discard any hypotheses at this stage. https://t.co/JwqvUCBzhk

On Jan 10, 2021 Globo reported that a bar owner had seen the boys at his bar which is located on the Estrada Mineira/Areia Branca square where the market takes place twice a week. He said he saw them on Dec 28th. A day after their disappearance.

A still of a security camera allegedly captured one of the boys. He wears blue shorts and no shirt; his face isn’t visible and has his back to the camera. The footage was taken on the same day and at the same time the bar owner said he saw the boys.

It showed three boys walking around the square. The boys’ family initially didn’t recognize them but later changed their statement and one of the mothers said the boy in blue shorts could be her son.
https://t.co/1qBuNRml2a

On Jan 12, a man from the same housing complex was accused of being a child molester and taken to the police department by his neighbors. While being questioned the man denied any involvement and claimed he was tortured.

The police didn’t find any evidence that he was responsible and set him free after they also talked to his wife and stepchild.
https://t.co/zWVKogrYcG

The police confirmed that the man was tortured by a local gang of drug criminals to admit to the crime after the aforementioned rumors were spread by his stepson. Later, on the 13th, a protest for justice turned violent and a bus was burned.

The police alleged that the rioters were encouraged by drug criminals and said that they recognized some gang members in the mob.
https://t.co/uxPe0mklFH

The violence and the involvement of drug criminals led the police to believe the local mob had something to do with it and they shifted their focus.

On Jan 19, Globo writes that clothes were found in the house of the neighbor, Leandro, and that they will be analyzed by police, they will check if there is any blood on the clothes that supposedly belongs to the suspect.

Police will check if they can find DNA from the boys on the clothes and in order to compare, they took DNA from the boys’ mothers. https://t.co/FoocJiECda

Obviously, there is only so much you can do with open source. If it were possible to solve it this way, I believe the police would have done that by now. But if someone is interested in the case this might be a good overview.

Also check this map for an overview of the area https://t.co/og20osGrbe