Dead woman Cecilia Haddad’s dumped lover spotted in Rio

A person of interest in the murder of Cecilia Haddad insists he did not know about her death until police contacted him.

Mario Marcelo Santoro, a person of interest in the death of ex-girlfriend and former business partner Cecilia Haddad, in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. Picture: Alex Ribeiro

A person of interest in the Sydney murder of Brazilian mining executive Cecilia Haddad — a case that has echoed through Rio de Janeiro’s most exclusive suburbs — insists he did not know about her death until police contacted him.

Mario Marcelo Santoro, Ms Haddad’s former business partner and lover, flew out of Sydney Airport hours before her weighted body was found floating in the Lane Cove River at Woolwich three weeks ago.

Yesterday, the 40-year-old was photographed with his two children near the famous Copa­cabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Dressed in grey shorts and a white T-shirt and carrying a child’s backpack, he was walking his daughters from a black Citroen SUV to an apartment building with heavy security fencing.

Mr Santoro says he had nothing to do with Ms Haddad’s murder and will co-operate with NSW police, who have listed him as one of several “persons of interest” but not a suspect in the death.

His mother, Jane Santoro, said her son was not involved in Ms Haddad’s death and she was “just his ex-girlfriend”.

“The police called him from Australia and talked through everything with him. It was just clearing things up,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “Everything that needs to be resolved about the girl (Ms Haddad) needs to be resolved in Australia now … She was just his ex-girlfriend. He found out what happened from the police.”

The family said police claimed to be close to a breakthrough.

Mr Santoro was previously married and the Telegraph said there had been arguing when he split from his wife in Brazil.

Mr Santoro’s apartment with ‘for sale’ signs in the window. Picture: Vanessa Hunter

“There were a lot of arguments; a lot of people talked about it here,” a doorman said.

Mr Santoro was asked to move out of Ms Haddad’s Sydney apartment weeks before her death and he had been looking for work in Brazil. The Australian has been told that soon after Mr Santoro returned to Rio, his father was rushed to hospital after he learned of Ms Haddad’s death. A relative said the family had held a crisis meeting but did not want to discuss publicly what was happening with Mr Santoro. They said he had withdrawn from a family WhatsApp group.

He had been in hiding from the media before being spotted by a photographer yesterday.

Mr Santoro’s former upmarket apartment in Lagoa, the most expensive neighbourhood in Rio and among the top five in South America, was yesterday empty and for sale. Lagoa is near the more famous beachside suburbs of Copacabana and Ipanema.

With its wide streets and poinciana median strips, Lagoa and the neighbouring Gavea are where Ms Haddad and Mr Santoro once lived and attended the nearby Catholic University.

The Haddad family is in mourning, waiting for the return of the body from Australia.

Padre Jorjao, the priest of the St Paul the Apostle Parish Church in Ipanema, said Australian police had told the family not to make any further public comments.

Ms Haddad’s body was found several kilometres from her abandoned car. Police at first thought her death was suicide but changed their theory to murder because weights were found in the pockets of the clothing she was wearing.

Ms Haddad’s death was initially reported in Brazil but has remained small news in a big city where deadly violence has been a rising problem in a period of post-Olympic Games financial drama and political upheaval. Rio’s favelas, or slums, are experiencing a surge in lawlessness amid gang turf wars. Under a federal intervention imposed in February, army patrols with machinegun-mounted jeeps were sent to keep order in the hillside settlements.

A spokeswoman for Brazil’s federal police said Brazilian authorities were co-operating with Australian police.