Accused killer Mario Marcelo Santoro ‘confessed’ to murder of Cecilia Haddad: reports

THE man who admitted to strangling Cecilia Haddad went to buy a juice before an Uber driver caught him making a simple mistake.

WHEN Cecilia Haddad’s mother began receiving texts about her daughter’s ex-partner, she knew something was off.

The words and phrasing she used didn’t sound like they’d come from her.

Haddad’s accused killer Mario Marcelo Santoro, 40, is today facing a pre-trial hearing in Rio de Janeiro, five months after kayakers found the Brazilian mining executive’s body floating in Sydney’s Lane Cove River.

Doctor Fabio Cardoso, deputy director of Rio’s homicide department, drew the court’s attention to WhatsApp messages sent from Haddad’s phone to her mother and her friends in Brazil after her death, the Daily Telegraph reports.

One message said Santoro had chosen to return to Brazil to spend more time with his children.

“Her own mother knew the way she wrote, and she already believed that Cecilia hadn’t written it,” Dr Cardoso told the judge.

Another said: “My sweet Milu, my Whatsapp isn’t good. I went to the shopping mall to have a massage.”

It also said she “hadn’t come across Poca”, which was the nickname Santoro was known by.

Dr Cardoso said Haddad’s mother became suspicious of the messages, which didn’t sound like they had come from her daughter.

Another text was sent to one of Haddad’s Australian friends, but according to Haddad’s stepmother Andreia, the English was so bad that she took it straight to police.

“The English was so bad she took it straight to the police,” she said. “Cecilia had been in the country for years, her English was perfect.”

38-year-old Brazilian national Cecilia Haddad was found dead in a Sydney river in April.

Brazilian Mario Marcelo Santoro has been accused of murdering Haddad.

The hearing was also told the 40-year-old admitted to the murder of his ex-girlfriend during informal talks with police, The Australian reports.

Dr Cardoso revealed Mr Santoro had “confessed” to the April murder while in custody, but he refused to respond to any official questions without a lawyer present.

The court heard he had felt “unwanted” and confessed to strangling her after an argument in their apartment, Dr Cardoso said.

The Rio-born engineer then allegedly went to a local shopping centre and bought a juice, for returning two hours later to attempt to hide the body.

Dr Cardoso said he then took an Uber to Sydney Airport to try and leave the country, stopping only to throw the keys to Haddad’s car out the window over Gladesville Bridge.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Santoro “never denied being the author of the crime” during interviews with officers after his arrest.

“He was very incensed by Cecilia’s growing separation from him. When the subject turned to whether she had another man, he got angry shouting ‘I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it’,” Dr Cardoso told the court.

“He said he had even turned to spiritualism to try to understand why she didn’t want him anymore. Whenever the subject turned to Cecilia he became altered and would start sobbing.”

Brazilian judge Daniel Werneck Cotta talks with lawyers before the start of a pre-trial hearing of Mario Marcelo Santoro at a Rio de Janeiro court.

Haddad’s body was found in April, and Santoro fled to Rio de Janeiro that same weekend.
He was found hiding in a relative’s home in Rio’s Botafogo neighbourhood and arrested on July 7.

Santoro now faces charges of qualified homicide and femicide, which could see him receive a sentence of up to 30 years in a Brazilian prison if convicted.

The judiciary branch of Rio de Janeiro state earlier this month a judge would question plaintiff and defendant witnesses at this hearing.

The judiciary branch’s press office said other hearings may be held and no date has been set for Santoro’s trial.

The pre-trial hearing is set to continue for up to 14 more days.

— with AAP