Where is Eloisa Fontes now? Top model who went missing from NY a year ago found 'disoriented' in Brazil slum
Brazilian model Eloisa Pinto Fontes, who was reported to be missing from New York in 2019, was found “alone and disoriented” in a Rio slum in Brazil recently, according to Daily Mail. The model who once graced the covers of reputed magazines including Elle, Grazia, and Glamor was found in the Morro do Cantagalo favela in Rio, in the south-east of the country on October 6.
Fontes was found by a local neighborhood watch team. The model was reportedly spotted wandering around “shirtless and shoe-less for two days.” Fontes was carrying nothing on her but a rucksack containing documents. The paperwork reportedly comprised of her contracts with international modeling agencies and references from international photographers.
Reports state that Fontes “vanished” from New York City earlier in 2019 and was found five days later, on a street in the city of White Plains, about 30 minutes drive from central Manhattan. According to Mirror UK, she was “visibly disoriented” when she was first spotted after going missing.
Meanwhile, Oglobo reported that she decided to move back to Brazil earlier this year, and settled in Rio, looking for work. She hadn’t informed her family about her whereabouts and they couldn’t make any contact with her and continued to look for her. They reportedly live in a different part of Brazil.
However, one of the modeling agencies that got in touch with Fontes, has revealed that their organization agreed to help her find work as her career had come to a halt following her disappearance. She reportedly told the agency that she “may also be traveling to Germany and New York for work” besides expressing her interest in finding jobs in her native country. However, the modeling agency ‘Joy’ did not finalize any contract with Fontes “before the pandemic hit,” reports Daily Mail.
Before she vanished, the model lived with her husband and fellow model Andre Birleanul in New York. She reportedly met the Russian-Romanian model at the age of 18 when he was 34 and living in Sao Paulo. They share a daughter together, who was born in 2013. The couple got married in 2014. Reports suggest that Fontes and Birleanu broke up soon after her disappearance. He is said to have retained the custody of their seven-year-old daughter.
According to Daily Mail, Fontes stayed with her friend when she first arrived in Rio and eventually moved in with her then-boyfriend, with whom the romance lasted for about four months. There is no information available about her whereabouts between the breakup and until she was recently found in the Rio slums.
Fontes is said to have been in a “paranoid state,” reluctant to go with the police when she was found. She has since been since enrolled in a mental health facility, the Philippe Pinel Psychiatric Institute in the Botafogo neighborhood, and the doctors have reportedly said that they have no plans of releasing her. Her mother has been informed about her whereabouts and she would be traveling to Rio to take care of her.