Deaths Of Santa Rosa Father, 2 Young Children Ruled Suicide, Asphyxiation

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The Sonoma County Sheriff-Coroner's Office has ruled that a 6-year-old Sonoma County girl and her 19-month-old baby brother died by asphyxiation June 19 in their father's Santa Rosa residence, and that as was suspected, the death of their 40-year-old father was suicide by hanging. Authorities said Monday that the death of Juliana Sofia Camara, 6, has been ruled homicide by asphyxiation, while the death of Julian Luis Camara, 19 months, has been ruled probable homicidal asphyxiation.

According to sheriff's officials, the bodies of Alvaro Botelho Da Camara and his two young children were discovered the morning of Monday, June 19. The children's mother, a resident of an unincorporated area southwest of Santa Rosa, reported that Da Camara, her estranged husband, had his children for Father's Day but when she went to pick them up Sunday evening from his residence in the 700 block of Slater Street in Santa Rosa, no one appeared to be home, sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Crum said at the time.

She called the sheriff's office and deputies looked in windows, knocked on doors and left a business card at the door, Crum said.

Deputies and the children's mother were in phone contact overnight and deputies returned to Da Camara's apartment around 9 a.m. Monday. The children's mother and two of her brothers also went to the apartment Monday morning, according to Crum.

A deputy climbed a ladder to enter the apartment by removing a screen on an open bathroom window. The bodies were found in a bedroom and deputies called Santa Rosa police around 9:50 a.m., Crum said.

Prior to the tragic discovery Monday, investigators didn't "have any information he was a danger to himself or the children," Santa Rosa police Lt. Mike Lazzarini said at the time.

"There was no domestic violence," Lazzarini said.

Da Camara and his wife had been in Sonoma County Superior Court that Friday regarding a custody issue but they came to an agreement, Lazzarini said.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.