The public prosecutor’s office of the province of Maynas, in the zone of Iquitos, has since opened an investigation into the case of the death of Brother Paul McAuley, the director of a boarding school for young indigenous persons in Loreto.

The British member of the order, known to many as ‘Brother Paul,’ was found dead on the 2nd of April, in the premises of the La Salle Intercultural Student Community Hostel, in the district of Belén in Iquitos, an administrative section of the Peruvian forest, in the Loreto region.

Paul Mc Auley was born in 1947 in Portsmouth, England. He moved to Peru in 1995 where he founded the College of Faith and Happiness, in Zapallal, in the district of Puente Piedra, in Lima. Later he worked in Moyobamba and San José de Amazonas.

For the past 19 years, he lived in Iquitos and worked at the “Voice of the Forest” radio station where he promoted multiple projects to enhance the communities that live on the coast of the Amazons and the Huallaga. He also raised funds for the young natives who came to Iquitos to study.

Brother Paul was well known in the locality for his commitment to protecting the environment and the indigenous peoples.

Sources: Agenzia Fides, Telegraph, The Sun