Ex-lover of Brazilian woman found floating in Lane Cove River flew out of Sydney for Rio de Janeiro
THE mother of murdered Brazilian mining executive Cecilia Haddad is too sick to fly to Australia and says she doesn’t know if she will “survive this tragedy”.
NSW
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THE mother of murdered Brazilian mining executive Cecilia Haddad is too sick to fly to Australia and says she doesn’t know if she will “survive this tragedy”.
Kayakers found Ms Haddad’s fully-clothed body floating in the Lane Cove River at Woolwich on Sunday morning, some six kilometres from her Ryde home in Sydney’s northwest.
Ms Haddad’s mother, Milu Muller, is too sick to fly to Australia after recent surgery.
“I do not know if I will survive this tragedy,” Ms Muller said in a statement to Fairfax Media today.
“Maybe if they arrest the murderer, I may have some relief. Thank you and please do everything to help catch the monster that did this.”
Police will fly to Perth today to quiz Ms Haddad’s friends about a former lover who flew out of Sydney for Rio de Janeiro at the weekend.
Ms Haddad’s friends have already told homicide detectives the man, Mario Marcelo Santoro, brought forward his travel by days, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
Police are checking airline records after being told the man, named as a “person of interest”, was due to return to Brazil on Monday or Tuesday but appears to have left on the weekend.
“Flight records are being checked to see when he actually left the country and when he was originally booked to leave,’’ a police source said.
“Obviously he is a person of interest and someone we need to talk to but there are others.”
Mr Santoro and Ms Haddad both worked as community support workers at disability service provider Hireup after mid-2017, their LinkedIn profiles reveal.
They attended the same university in Brazil, according to their online resumes.
Mr Santoro is listed as a managing director of D.Care, which is a registered partnership between “C Haddad & M Santoro” in government databases. D.Care’s address is listed as Ms Haddad’s residential address in Ryde.
Detectives have also been told Ms Haddad, who is divorced, had used dating sites since becoming single.
Friend Carolina Camara said she had known Ms Haddad for 10 years and was in contact with her daily.
“I spoke to her on Friday night and she was in a wonderful mood,’’ Ms Camara said last night. “It was about 10.30pm Sydney time. Then on Saturday I couldn’t raise her, and again on Sunday, so I rang the police.’’
Ms Camara said she could not talk about her friend’s former relationship because of the police investigation.
Ms Haddad’s cousin Thiago Haddad, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, said he appreciated the outpouring of condolences and prayers but said he didn’t have the “information yet,” regarding his cousins ex-boyfriend or the nature of their relationship.
Friend Leonarda Lee Duque shared a NSW Police Facebook post appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
“We’ll miss you forever, Cissa,” she wrote.
When questioned about ex-boyfriend Mario Marcelo Santoro, Ms Duque said she knew nothing about him.
“No, I don’t know anything about him and I truly hope the Australian police together with Brazilian police finds him.”
Ms Haddad’s ex-husband Felipe Torres flew from Perth to identify her body.
Police believe Ms Haddad’s distinctive red-and-black Fiat 500 is the key to solving her murder.
The car, rego number DJV-50H, was found in the quiet car park at West Ryde railway station about 2pm on Sunday.
A neighbour said they saw it near Ms Haddad’s Ryde home on Saturday afternoon.
“Who drove it to the station and when it got there are questions that have to be answered,’’ the source said.
Detectives are yet to release results of yesterday’s autopsy but said it did not appear that Ms Haddad had been in the water long.
Friends last heard from her in telephone calls and text messages between 8am and 9.30am on Saturday when she “seemed anxious about something”.
This prompted them to raise the alarm later that day when she failed to attend engagements in the afternoon and evening.
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The night before she had returned home to her flat in St Annes Street Ryde, where she lived alone, after a barbecue with friends.
Detective Acting Inspector Ritchie Sim yesterday renewed an appeal for help to trace Ms Haddad’s last moments and said police had already obtained CCTV footage from the area.
Insp Ritchie said she was a “very friendly lady” with a large circle of friends, “a very well-liked person”.
Police have also spoken to her devastated mother Milu Muller in Brazil.
Ms Haddad, who spoke English, Portuguese and Spanish, arrived in Australia about 11 years ago and found work almost immediately with BHP at Port Hedland, where she lived for about three years — marrying her husband in 2008.
According to her Facebook page she had been married before, in 2004.
In July 2012, she moved with BHP to Perth before moving to Sydney in June 2016 for a job as head of operational planning with the rail giant Pacific National. Former colleagues there were said to be “shocked and very upset” at the news of her death.
She left last July to set up her own company — CHC Consulting.
The manager of a retail store close to West Ryde railway station said she saw the red Fiat parked in the carpark on Sunday afternoon with two police officers examining it.
“I first saw police around it on Sunday afternoon after 2pm,” said the woman, who wanted to be known only as Alyona.
“They were looking and searching inside the car — but I didn’t know what for.”
Police yesterday returned to the Lane Cover River at Woolwich in a diving boat to continue their search of the area.