RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Interpol and Brazil's federal police are investigating the case of former Miss Brazil Taiza Thomsen, who has been missing since September 2006, police said on Monday.

    The 24-year-old blue-eyed brunette was crowned Miss Brazil in the 2002 pageant, following victories in beauty contests in her hometown Joinville, and Santa Catarina state in the south of the country.

    Thomsen has lived in Sao Paulo over the past few years and has seldom been seen in Joinville, friends said.

    However, fears for her safety were aroused after she failed to make contact with her family for nearly five months. Her father called the police on Thursday.

    Police suspect the former beauty queen could be a victim of a human-trafficking scheme, but concrete evidence of this is yet to emerge.

    One friend told a local TV network that she and some other friends met Thomsen in London last year, where she announced that she was about to marry a Polish man in Europe.

    There have also been rumors among the people of Joinville that Thomsen fled the area after getting pregnant while having an affair with the town's mayor, who is married.