Custody dispute over children preceded Santa Rosa double homicide, suicide

A Santa Rosa mother whose two young children were found slain Monday near their father, who had hanged himself, said she had feared for her children’s safety in their father’s care but felt her concerns had gone unheeded.

Over the past seven weeks, Connie Rodrigues and her estranged husband, Alvaro Botelho da Camara, had made separate calls to authorities seeking intervention on a custody fight over their children, according to police. Officers had even visited with the father at his Slater Street apartment in Santa Rosa after he called to ask police for help with the custody disagreement.

But the latest series of calls began late Friday when Rodrigues phoned police to say Botelho da Camara was “going nuts” and wouldn’t let her speak with their 6-year-old daughter on the phone, Santa Rosa police officials said.

Officers went to Botelho da Camara’s apartment near downtown and spoke to him. The child was fine, police would later say. Botelho da Camara told police he was upset about his strained marriage but the officers saw no sign he could be violent or suicidal, Santa Rosa Police Lt. Mike Lazzarini said.

Both children - the daughter, Juliana Camara, and 19-month-old Julian Camara, were with him on Father’s Day.

But by Monday morning they were found dead on his bed inside the apartment. Botelho da Camara had hanged himself in the room where his children lay, a grim discovery made only after deputies climbed through an apartment window at the mother’s urging, according to police.

Rodrigues came forward Tuesday with a written statement saying she worried about her children’s safety with Botelho da Camara and had “sought help on numerous occasions and said many, many, many times my children were in danger in their father’s care.”

“I didn’t receive the urgent help I needed to save them,” she wrote.

Lazzarini said police are aware of Rodrigues’ public statements that she had expressed concerns about her children’s safety with their father, but officials have so far found no reports of violence or potential violence in law enforcement or court records.

Three contacts with law

Detectives are now working to piece together what Rodrigues reported about her husband and whether there were any clues that he was a threat to his children or himself. Lazzarini said they are examining law enforcement interactions with the couple - each encounter, phone call and report - as well as their interactions with the family justice system and child protective services.

Botelho da Camara, 40, had a drunken-driving arrest but no other criminal record, according to police. Called “Al” by neighbors, he was a handyman who did work around the apartment complex. Camara also worked as a painter, taking jobs with different businesses, police said. On Facebook, Botelho da Camara said he was originally from the Azores in Portugal.

Lazzarini said that the couple had three contacts with law enforcement and other agencies since they separated in December, but none of the incidents clearly foreshadowed the violence that befell their children.

Botelho da Camara called about 8:20 p.m. April 29 to ask for police help during a disagreement he was having with Rodrigues about the children. At that time, they had no formal custody arrangement.

Officers spoke with Botelho da Camara at his apartment, in a 10-unit complex between College Avenue and Benton Street.

“It was resolved. They agreed where the kids would be that night,” Lazzarini said. “There was no domestic violence report. There was no physical violence reported.”

The next call was placed at 4:20 p.m. May 31 by Rodrigues, who lives outside city limits, to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies advised her to seek child custody orders from the court, said Lazzarini. Whether deputies spoke with her in person or by phone was known to police detectives but that information was not immediately available, he said.

On June 14, Rodrigues and Botelho da Camara formalized a custody arrangement in Sonoma County Superior Court’s family division. The agreement allowed Botelho da Camara to have his daughter for overnight visits and see his little boy for daytime visits, Lazzarini said.

No sign of danger

Two days after the custody hearing, Rodrigues called police again.

The call came to police at 10:39 p.m. Friday. Rodrigues said Botelho da Camara wouldn’t let her speak with her daughter, who was with him for an overnight visit, on the phone.

Rodrigues told police Botelho da Camara was “irate and going nuts” but did not mention any sign of violence, according to Lazzarini.

Officers went to the apartment.

“He was fine, the girl was fine,” Lazzarini said. “Police encouraged them to calm down for the night and that’s what happened.”

The lieutenant said the officers observed no sign he might be dangerous, only that he appeared “mad over the circumstances. She (Rodrigues) was mad, too.”

Sunday morning, Rodrigues brought their son, Julian, to his father’s apartment to spend the day with him and his sister. She was supposed to reunite with her children that evening.

Neighbors told police they saw Juliana playing in a patio area outside the apartment building Sunday afternoon with her father and brother.

At 4:40 p.m. Sunday, Botelho da Camara called a hotline for child protectives services. He was calm as he spoke with a social worker at length, describing what he claimed to be poor living conditions at his estranged wife’s home, Lazzarini said.

Lazzarini said they are still seeking more details about the unrecorded phone conversation but said Botelho da Camara’s complaints included people living in a garage and “code enforcement issues.” He said the social worker listened and offered suggestions but did not interpret the call as an emergency.

Botelho da Camara’s car was reportedly gone for part of the afternoon on Sunday, and detectives suspect he may have left the apartment for an unknown amount of time.

Botelho da Camara and Rodrigues were apparently communicating at various points of day by phone, mostly through text messages, Lazzarini said. Those communications continued until about 7 p.m. when he said something about being out of town, even though that was when Rodrigues had arrived at Slater Street to pick up her children. But he didn’t answer the door.

Rodrigues called the Sheriff’s Office at 7:29 p.m.

Deputies showed up sometime between 10 and 11 p.m., knocked on the door but no one answered. They left a business card and went to the house again before dawn.

They returned about 9 a.m. Monday with members of Rodrigues’ family. Deputies found an open bathroom window, removed a screen and went inside, Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

Children, father found

They found the slain children and deceased father in the bedroom. Lazzarini declined to say whether Botelho da Camara left a note or any other type of message.

Officials aren’t yet saying how they suspect Botelho da Camara killed his children but have said they found no obvious traumatic injury. An autopsy will be conducted today.

Outside the light green, two-story apartments, neighbors and visitors built a memorial shrine on a wooden box covered by a cloth, brightened by bouquets of blue and pink hydrangeas, a red rose and white daisy. As Carrie Buchholz added a stuffed panda bear to the shrine, she said she knew “Al” and his family well.

“He was a real hands-on dad who loved his kids,” Buchholz said. “It’s shocking. I don’t think he was a bad man even though what happened was horrible. He must have been suffering serious anguish. He must have felt hopeless.”

Across town at Rodrigues’ family home in southwest Santa Rosa, the grieving mother collected flowers from the garden for a memorial. Other relatives joined her, picking flowers and threading stems through a chain-link fence facing the street.

“I don’t have anything to say right now,” Rodrigues said. “It’s too soon. It’s too raw. I’m just a mother who wants to hold her children but can’t.”

Staff Writer Nick Rahaim contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220.