I’m a former Brazilian marine (8 years of active duty) and I’d like to report a well-known story among the marines about the disappearance of a sergeant on an island where we usually conduct military training once a year. (known as “ilha da marambaia”).
a map of ilha da marambaia: https://imgur.com/a/4G1734B
The “Ilha of Marambaia” (marambaia island) is an island that during the time when Brazil was still an empire was refuge of slaves who fled the farms and gathered in communities in the most isolated parts of the island, these people are known as “quilombolas” and to this day they still survive on the island through hunting and fishing.
a pic showing one of them: https://imgur.com/a/pvpYUme
At one of these military trainings that takes place every year a newly graduated sergeant (I don’t know his name but let’s call him Ricardo to make it easier to tell the story) made friends with one of the quilombolas who live there in the region (which is very rare to happen, as we are advised to avoid any contact with them as they are known to be hostile to the military man).
During some conversations with the quilombola he told sgt ricardo about an ancient story of an old treasure hidden inside a cave in one of the isolated areas of the island. This old treasure that was hidden there by a group of thieves who shipwrecked on the island many years ago during the time when Brazil was still an empire.
However, he told sgt ricardo that he should not enter the cave because any quilombola that had already enter into it never returned again, so it was known to be inhabited by a spirit who protected the treasure from outsiders.
Ricardo was skeptical and did not believed much in spirits, so he asked for the quilombola to show him where the cave was, the same refused to show the cave entrance because he said that it was very dangerous, ricardo then did not insist and decided to forget that story and just focus on the military training.
Years passed, and Ricardo didn’t forget the story of the treasure on the island, and he was thinking about how his life would change if he managed to find that treasure.
The life of a Marine in Brazil was very rough and the salary was low, so he dreamed of getting out of the Marine Corps one day and starting his own business and that treasure could help him with that.
So he decided that the next time he went to attend a military training on the marambaia island he would insist that the quilombola show him where the cave entrance is, even if for that he had to offer him money to show him the way.
So after a few months sgt Ricardo became aware that he would be chosen to be part of the next training on the island, so that would be his chance to change his life and he would not let that escape.
Arriving on the island, he attended the usual training drills and waited until the day-off, which was one of the days when there would be no training and he would have more time to explore the cave.
He waited for dawn to go to the quilombola’s place without anyone from his squad seeing him since the exploration of the island by the military was prohibited by the officers, as there have been cases of military disappearing in previous training, and then he asked one of the quilombolas to show him the way to the cave.
Before he went to the quilombola, Ricardo invited a close friend to go with him to help him find the treasure (this close friend is the person who spread the story that you are reading), and said that if they found the treasure he would share the treasure with him. The sergeant’s friend refused to go because he said it was very dangerous and advised him not to go there either.
He ignored his friend’s advice and decided to go like there anyway. After finding one of the quilombolas and insisting that it showed him the way, he agreed and took Ricardo to the entrance of the cave, where the sergeant entered in search of the treasure that could change his life.
The next day, the sergeant’s friend noticed that he had not returned from his search in the cave and told the officers what had happened. Search teams were requested and it took about a week to find the entrance to the cave where the sergeant entered. After conducting searches inside the cave they found the sergeant Ricardo dead body, probably he was lost inside and could not find the exit or was bit by a snake (heavy rain on that island is very common, and normally snakes take refuge inside the caves). It is said that the Marine Corps compensated the sergeant’s family and hid the case from the public so that it did not appear in the newspapers.
I don’t know if that really happened or not, but it’s a very common story in the Marine Corps that is often told by older marines. It is said that this story happened in the early 1990s, so I think at the time it was not very difficult to hide this kind of story from the media.