Coroner: Santa Rosa children, 6 and 1, asphyxiated by father

Two young children found dead in their father’s Santa Rosa apartment this past June suffered apparent asphyxiation at his hands, though just how he did it remains unknown, the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office said Monday.

Juliana Sofia Camara, 6, and her brother, 1½-year-old Julian Camara, were found slain the morning of Monday, June 19 after a Father’s Day visit with their dad, who was locked in an escalating child custody dispute with their mother.

The father, Alvaro Botelho Da Camara, 40, was found hanged in the same Slater Street apartment after sheriff’s deputies climbed through a bathroom window to check on the children, who were supposed to have been returned to their mother the night before.

The siblings lay dead on a nearby bed. Authorities’ believe their father smothered them with a pillow or used his hands to strangle them, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the coroner’s office. It appeared Juliana had fought back, authorities said.

The Camara children’s deaths culminated a troubled 7½-year marriage that was in jeopardy soon after it started, resulting in ongoing court battles over child support and custody, according to court records.

Connie Rodrigues, who was separated from Botelho Da Camara, said in a public statement days after the tragedy she had long believed the children were at risk with their father.

The Friday before Father’s Day, Rodrigues had called police while her daughter was spending the night at her father’s home. Rodrigues said her husband was “irate and going nuts” and would not let his wife talk with their daughter on the phone, police said later.

Responding officers found Botelho Da Camara upset about the tension and animosity between him and his children’s mother, but determined the daughter was fine.

That Sunday morning, Rodrigues delivered her son to Botelho Da Camara’s custody so both children could be with him for Father’s Day.

When she returned to pick them up about 7 p.m. that night, no one answered the door, authorities said. A short time later, she called the Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s deputies knocked on the apartment door later that night and again before dawn, but no one answered.

Around 9 a.m. Monday, deputies arrived again at Slater Street with Rodrigues and removed a screen from the bathroom window to get inside.

The gruesome scene laid out before them was a realization of their mother’s worst nightmare.

In her statement, Rodrigues wrote that she had “said many, many, many times my children were in danger in their father’s care.”