CT Rosa Marie Camacho (4) - Hartford CT, 1997

Missing Since: October 24, 1997 from Hartford, Connecticut
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: June 7, 1993
Age: 4 years old
Height and Weight: 3'0, 38 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Hispanic female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Rosa's nickname is Rosita. She spoke Spanish at the time of her 1997 disappearance and may speak English.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A black jacket and blue pants.

Details of Disappearance

Rosa and her mother, Rosa Delgado, left their Hartford, Connecticut residence at approximately 5:00 p.m. to walk to a local store together and buy groceries. The store was in the 60 block of Madison Avenue; it has since been replaced by another establishment. A photo of Delgado is posted below this case summary. She left her infant daughter at her home in the care of a sister when she left with Rosa. A witness saw Rosa's father and Delgado's former boyfriend, Julio J. Camacho, speaking to them on a street corner in their Parkville area neighborhood prior to the females' disappearances. Rosa has never been seen again.

A woman's body was discovered floating in three feet of water in Columbia Lake in western New Jersey in November 1997, one month after Rosa and Delgado vanished. Her head and hands were missing. Authorities were initially unable to identify the homicide victim and named her "The Lady Of The Lake." The woman's identity remained a mystery until DNA tests were conducted in 1999, nearly two years later. The tests proved that the remains were that of Delgado.

There have been no arrests in either Rosa's disappearance or Delgado's homicide, but Julio has been named as the prime suspect. He was a police officer in Hartford at the time Rosa and Delgado vanished in 1997, but resigned from the department in 1998. Julio pleaded guilty to the 1997 rape of a woman in Connecticut in 2001. There have been numerous other complaints from alleged female victims against Julio for sexual misconduct in preceding years.

Julio reportedly asked his brother to submit a false alibi for him after Rosa and Delgado disappeared. Authorities discovered a handmade hatchet and wire garrote inside Julio's residence during a search after the females disappeared. It is not known if the instruments were involved in either Rosa or Delgado's cases


Charley Project
NCMEC

Discuss Rosa's case here:

CT-Rosa Camacho 4 yrs old missing 9yrs - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community