Costa Rica: Hunt For Suspect Begins In The Brutal Murders Of Two Young American Women...
Slimpickins
Suspect sought in women's deaths
BY GLENN GARVIN
gga...@herald.com
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Police are
searching for a man seen with two young
American women a few hours before they
were murdered Sunday night near a
popular Caribbean beach, a crime that has
rattled not only Costa Rica's peace of mind
but its biggest industry, tourism.
As they search for the man -- police
wouldn't give his name or even his
nationality -- Costa Rican authorities are
mulling over an offer of help from the FBI
office in Miami.
``We've already made a broad and highly
technical search,'' said Jorge Rojas, head
of the Office of Judicial Investigations, Costa Rica's national
detective
force. ``We'll see if there's anything else we need.''
The two women, Emily Howell of Lexington, Ky., and Emily Eagen of Ann
Arbor, Mich., both 19, were shot to death late Sunday night just south
of
Cahuita on the southern tip of Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, the
backdrop
for an uneasy mixture of upscale tourism, grinding poverty, and
cutthroat
narcotics trafficking.
Howell was a student at Antioch College in Ohio and Eagen was a former
student there.
In an interview with The Herald, Rojas made the murders sound
chillingly
close to executions. The women were shot five times ``at extremely
close
range,'' he said -- Howell twice in the head, once in the shoulder;
Eagen
once in the head, once in the spine.
``Whoever did this wanted to make sure they didn't live,'' Rojas said.
ID cards, credit cards and articles of clothing were strewn about the
scene,
Rojas said, and police have all but ruled out robbery as a motive.
Howell
was found naked and Eagen partly clothed, but tests for rape have not
been completed, he said.
Rojas revealed little about the man being sought for questioning,
except
that he was seen with the two women after they left their motel in
Puerto
Viejo, six or seven miles south of Cahuita, to buy beer around 10 p.m.
Sunday.
But he said police believe at least two people committed the murders,
partly because of footprints at the scene and partly because police
found
only two spent cartridges there -- leading them to believe that two
weapons
were involved, one that ejected cartridges and one that didn't. Police
recovered four of the five bullets that struck the women, but
ballistics
experts haven't determined yet if they came from the same gun.
Howell had been living in Costa Rica with another student from Antioch
-- a
Canadian whose name has been reported as Shanna, Shaun or Shannon
Sellers -- since early this year while working on a college project.
Eagen
was visiting them.
``We've been studying Costa Rican society for two months, sent by the
college, and we planned to stay in Costa Rica two months more,''
Sellers
said as she entered a police station for questioning late Tuesday.
Police have not disclosed what Sellers told them except that she stayed
in
the motel, feeling ill, when the other two women left to buy beer
Sunday
night. Their bodies were discovered by a local resident in a roadside
jungle
area at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
The murders have given the country's tourist industry a collective case
of
the jitters. Costa Rica has made tourism the mainstay of its economy
over
the past decade.
LOCAL CONCERNS
But the number of visitors dipped 4 percent in 1996 after four
foreigners
were kidnapped in northern Costa Rica, and tour operators are worried
that this week's killings could be even worse for business.
``One thing is clear,'' said Miguel Angel Jimenez, a local official on
the
Caribbean coast. ``If we lose tourism, we die.''
Added Eddie Ryan, an American who owns a hotel in Puerto Viejo:
``Everybody here is in a state of shock. Everybody here is wondering
what
happened and what's going to happen.''
The U.S. Embassy in San Jose was deluged with phone calls and e-mail
messages Wednesday from American tourists wondering if they should
cancel their trips.
``Our advice to people is to take the same precautions that they would
use
in any large U.S. city,'' an American official said. ``There is crime
here, and
just because you're on vacation in a nice place doesn't mean you should
let down your guard.''
Government officials said news media are giving Costa Rica a bad deal.
``If we look at the numbers, foreigners aren't in any special danger
here,''
Rojas said. ``If you go to Mexico or Colombia or El Salvador, the level
of
violence is much greater.
``The thing is, Costa Rica is known for being more open, for being
peaceful, for being a tourist capital. So when something happens here,
there's a big scandal.''
But it's also true that Costa Rica has been the scene of a number of
bloody crimes against foreigners over the past five years:
A highly decorated U.S. Army veteran who lost a leg during the Vietnam
War was beaten to death by a San Jose cab driver during a 1997 fare
dispute.
The body of a retired American engineer lay in his San Jose living room
for
four months in 1997 before being discovered by friends who thought he
was traveling. He had been beaten to death, apparently by prostitutes
and
their friends .
An American rancher was killed in a shootout with squatters on the
southern tip of Costa Rica in 1997.
Two longtime American residents were killed in their home on the
northern
border last year in an apparent robbery.
Seven American women have been sexually assaulted in Costa Rica since
1995, and several others suffered attempted assaults.
WORST AREA
Some of the worst violence has occurred in the area around Cahuita and
Puerto Viejo where the two women were murdered Sunday. Two other
prominent victims -- a Costa Rican electric company official and an
Austrian hotel owner -- have been murdered in the region recently. In
1996, an American woman was stabbed so badly during a robbery that she
required three surgeries.
The crime rate along the Caribbean coast has increased so sharply in
recent months that tourist operators there met with Costa Rican
security
officials last week to demand increased protection.
People in South Florida involved in travel to Costa Rica expressed
skepticism about the impact on tourism.
``Initially, my reaction was that I was pretty concerned. But this is
an
isolated incident in a country that is known for being very peaceful,''
said
Stephen Brooks, whose Miami-based company, Costa Rican Adventures,
specializes in group trips for students interested in learning about
the rain
forest.
Herald special correspondent Catalina Calderon and Herald staff writer
Amy Driscoll contributed to this report.
Merc
Though...... no mention of any missing money? Somehow I presume that the
tests re. rape will come back positive!
Merc