A BRIT who has been missing in Brazil for almost a month is feared to be dead after his girlfriend received chilling texts.

Matthew Hemsley, 35, is thought to have been murdered by a gang but a motive is unknown and his body has not been found.

Y se piensa Brazilian police have given up the search amid a lack of new clues or evidence.

Dad Mike, 71, le dijo al sol: “I’m struggling. Most of us are struggling. I get very emotional thinking about it. It’s something you see on the news but it’s different when it happens to you.

“We hope that his body is found to get some closure.

“I spoke with him two to three times a week through Whatsapp.

“A lot of people speak with their dad’s about rubbish but he would speak about geopolitics, agriculture, farming – we had good conversations. He was a lot deeper as a person than most.

“I have been down to my allotment and that’s difficult. I would speak to him when I was down there but now he doesn’t message me and I don’t message him.”

Matthew disappeared in Candeias, in the state of Bahia, en mayo 28.

He was last seen having dinner with a pal in a local bar before heading home and leaving a voicemail message for his friend.

Mike said Matthew – who lived on a farm after moving to Brazil around seven years ago – was an adventurous man and would have known the risk.

Mike added: “He wouldn’t have been naive to it. Unfortunately you can never be fully prepared. You take what precaution you can.”

He said four days later, his pregnant girlfriend received haunting messages.

Mike told the BBC: “She got messages saying ‘don’t you realise your husband’s been killed?

“What are you doing about getting justice?'”

It is unclear if or how Matthew died but Mike fears a gang has had him murdered.

Police arrested a man for an unrelated crime who claims to have seen Matthew being killed, but this is yet to be verified.

Cops searched the area and discovered his passport on the farm.