The body of a Brazilian mining executive was found floating face-down in a river in Australia — and homicide detectives are now eager to grill her ex-lover as they piece together her last day alive, according to reports.
Cecilia Haddad, 38, was found dead in the Lane Cove River in Sydney on Sunday after she was reported missing by friends, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Police are searching for Mario Marcelo Santoro, a former boyfriend and business partner of Haddad’s who recently split from her.
Santoro jetted from Sydney to Brazil over the weekend. Police said he is a person of interest — and not a suspect. They are using a liaison officer in South America to try to make contact with him.
It was initially believed that Haddad — whose body was found by kayakers — accidentally drowned, but police quickly began investigating her death as suspicious.
Investigators are working to reconstruct her final 24 hours. She attended a barbecue with friends Friday night and last chatted with pals the next morning, the Guardian reported. Her red 2013 Fiat 500 sedan was seen outside her home Saturday afternoon.
An autopsy was completed Wednesday, though details haven’t officially been released.
But a preliminary report confirms she was murdered, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Haddad, who moved to Australia in 2007, and Santoro owned a business called D.Care together. She had worked for a mining company in Western Australia and moved to New South Wales two years ago to take a job as a manager at freight company Pacific National.
Haddad left Pacific National to start her own firm, CHC Consulting.
Haddad’s mother, Milu Muller, told the publication that her daughter was “always a very talented, intelligent girl with a pure heart.”
“I want people to know that she did not believe that people were cruel and selfish. She always forgave and gave people one more chance. I think she was too good for this world,” Muller wrote in Portuguese in an email from her home in Rio de Janeiro. “Maybe if they arrest the murderer, I may have some relief. Thank you and please do everything to help catch the monster who did this.”
