The mother of murdered Brazilian Cecilia Haddad has cried in a Rio court as she told of a frantic final phone conversation with her daughter in Sydney before she disappeared.
Milu Muller, 70, said she heard ex-boyfriend Mario Marcelo Ferreira dos Santos Santoro, 40, who is accused of Haddad's murder, banging on her daughter's apartment door.
"I could tell his voice clearly," she said. "He was shouting 'open the door' and 'I want to talk to you.' Cecilia told him she did not want to talk and twice threatened to call the police."
The body of 38-year-old Cecilia Haddad was found in Sydney's Lane Cove River. Source: SBS News
The suspect, who was not present at the pre-trial hearing at a court in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, is accused of the murder of the 38-year-old in Sydney in April. He then allegedly returned to Brazil to avoid arrest.
The pair had dated but Cecilia told family he did not accept the end of their courtship.
The phone call happened at lunchtime on Saturday April 28 (Sydney time). Haddad had told her mother, who had recently had heart surgery, about her concerns about Santoro.
"I told her to go to the window to check that he had left, but she said she was sure he had. I asked her to hire private security, but she said it would be too expensive.
"I never heard from her again," she added, breaking down in tears.
Mario Marcelo Santoro was arrested for the murder of Cecilia Haddad on 7 July in Rio de Janeiro. Source: SBS News
After her daughter did not check in with her the next day, Muller sent a series of increasingly desperate messages to her daughter on Facebook Messenger.
"Then I received a message from her account telling me that she was going to the mountains until Thursday. It was obvious from the tone and content that it was someone pretending to be her."
A friend of Haddad also told the court how she spent the days prior to her death in a "panic" over threats and harassment from Santoro.
Rita Maciel, a 37-year-old Brazilian who lives in Sydney, said her friend had "a fear of being at home, a fear of going to work, a fear of driving her own car."
"He threatened to kill her. She was in a psychological panic but had done nothing wrong. He followed her car to find out what she was doing. After all this, she still wanted to help him."
Maciel said she told her "marvelous" friend not to stay in Sydney. "She did not have family here," she said, testifying via video link. "She was strong and intelligent. She could have gone anywhere."
"She wanted a family and this guy destroyed her life."
After Cecilia went missing Maciel said she wanted to go the police immediately but was persuaded by her husband to wait for 24 hours. "I spent the day trembling," she said.
Police in Rio arrested Santoro at a relative's house in July, after he had apparently fled Australia. He is expected to appear in court to testify on December 17.
Judge Daniel Werneck Cotta will decide if Santoro will face a full trial. If he does, the result will be decided by a jury of seven. If convicted, he could face a sentence of 30 years.
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