Marco Aurélio, 15, was part of a group of four young people from the Olivetano Scout Group, led by Chief Juan Bernabeu Céspedes, who sought to reach Marins’ Peak, of 2,420m, near the city of Piquete, on the border between São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
At 1,700 meters of altitude, a boy sprained his foot. In order to help, the scout Marco Aurélio Simon offered to go to the front of the group, paving the way for the passage of his injured friend, and also to see if he could find any help as soon as possible, while the others would try to follow him slowly. The young scout was distancing himself and disappeared without leaving any kind of clue or trace, and from then on he was never seen again.
“The day was June 8, 1985. A date not to forget. Beginning of a 32-year story that changed my life and that of my family”, recalls Ivo Simon, father of Marco Aurélio.
At that moment one of the greatest indecipherable mysteries known in Brazil began, the “Disappearance of Scout Marco Aurélio Simon”. More than 300 men carried out the searches for about 28 days, included among the largest ever carried out in Brazil, with civil police, military, woodsmen, speleologists, climbers, two helicopters and three teams from the COE (Special Operations Command).
Since the time of the disappearance, suspicions have also fallen on the tour guide, the scout Juan Bernabeu Céspedes. He was the last to have contact with the young man. As stated in the inquiry, that afternoon, the leader even accompanied the boy to a certain point of the descent, leaving the other adventurers behind.
The police even investigated whether there was a possible sexual motivation in the young man’s disappearance. Statements from police officers, attached to the inquiry, pointed out that the guide could have abused the boy and then killed him. But this hypothesis was discarded because the searches found no sign of the body or traces of the boy.
For 28 days, more than 300 people participated in the searches, including volunteers, civil police, military and firefighters, who searched the peak on foot and with helicopters.
No bodies, no pieces of clothing or trace on the earth were found. It was as if Marco Aurélio had “evaporated”. The police searched the place very thoroughly, even making several sweeps in the same place, looking for clues that could have been ignored in the first searches, but nothing that indicated what happened to Marco Aurélio was found.
Hypotheses for the disappearance
There was no lack of suspicion in this case. For some, aliens took the young man. For others, a sect called the Blue Butterfly kidnapped the boy. It was even speculated that an animal, such as a jaguar, could have devoured the scout. But in the case of murder and death by animal attack, how can we explain that no suspicious trace has ever been found?
The family’s desperation was such that any news that could bring any clue to discover the boy’s whereabouts was investigated by the family. A police chief, a friend of people close to the Simon family, even suggested to Marco Aurélio’s father that he contact an Air Force general, who knew about phenomena linked to extraterrestrials.
The hypothesis of alien abduction began to be considered, so much so that Ivo Simon, father of Marcus Aurelius, even contacted a person who claimed to be able to talk to aliens via telepathy (some sources claim that this person was the general mentioned above), so that he could ask beings from other planets about information about the boy, But no answer was given.
“We went to umbandistas, parapsychologists, spiritists. Most said he was alive,” said Ivo.
The family even sought out the famous medium Chico Xavier, at the time, they had the following answer: “I only communicate with people who have disincarnated, and not with the living”. Because of all this, the Simon family believes that the boy is still alive.
The lights and the sound of the whistle
On the second night of searching, the boys who were with Marco Aurélio, together with the leader of the group Juan Bernabeu and a few other people were getting ready for bed, first heard a scream in the nearby woods, and after the scream came the sound of a whistle. Everyone was amazed, because Marco Aurélio, as a scout, used a whistle, which is an aid instrument to help locate a lost or difficult person in the woods.
At the moment of the sound of the whistle, everyone left the house where they were staying, which belonged to Mr. Afonso, a local guide, and headed for the forest and, suddenly, they came across flashes of blue lights, which turned on and off three times.
After this incident, the leader of the group, Juan Bernabeu, also took his whistle and went towards the forest and began to blow it, requesting a return, but nothing happened, only silence.
UFO scholars have said that this was the moment when Marcus Aurelius could have been abducted by extraterrestrials, due to the details of the phenomenon.
The fact mentioned above was true, and appears in the police process about the disappearance of Marco Aurélio and the family never lost hope of finding him, and follows how the son’s physiognomy would be by the transformations in the face of Marco Antonio, Marco Aurélio’s twin brother.
