Suspect in Nun’s Slaying Surrenders

A suspect in the killing of an American nun who spent decades trying to protect the Amazon rain forest has surrendered to police, Brazilian authorities said Saturday.

Amair Freijoli da Cunha was taken into custody after turning himself in to police in Altamira, a city about 80 miles from where Dorothy Stang, 73, was shot Feb. 12, police said.

Authorities were still searching for two purported gunmen and a rancher who is accused of ordering the slaying, police investigator Ana Indira Vaz said.

Cunha allegedly hired the gunmen, police said, and was the intermediary between the killers and rancher Vitamiro Goncalves Moura.

Cunha was accompanied by a lawyer when he surrendered, police said. Cunha acknowledged knowing Moura but denied being involved in Stang’s killing, police said.

Also Saturday, police released a photograph of suspected gunman Rayfran das Neves Sales, who was identified by witnesses, police said.

About 50 state and federal officers and jungle troops in helicopters and pickup trucks were hunting for Neves Sales and the other suspects in the largely lawless region where Stang was killed.

“It’s just a matter of time before we catch them,” Vaz said. “We’re close.”