Q COSTARICA — After nine days of reported missing, Costa Rica awoke Thursday morning to the news of the discovery of the body of 29-year-old Junieysis Adely Merlo Espinoza in a shallow grave at the Los Pericos condominium complex in Santa Ana.
The acting director of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), Michael Soto, confirmed the discovery of the body at 2:00 a.m.: A key piece of information was that Junieysis was last seen on March 31.
The young woman was originally from Nicaragua, and most of her family lives there. When they lost contact with her, they asked her partner about her whereabouts. However, the man, Gustavo Ramírez Calvo, 57, told them that she had gone to the beach with some friends and wouldn’t be taking her cell phone.
“She has an expensive phone, it’s worth more than a million colones. So I said to her, ‘Aren’t you afraid to take such an expensive phone if you’re going with people who are longtime friends?’ Then she said, ‘Well, I’m not going to take it.’ (…) There are about three other phones at home, and I said to her, ‘Why don’t you take that phone?’ And she said, ‘No, no, I’m going without a phone.’ So I took the expensive phone and said, ‘Okay, here, take this one,’ and she said, ‘No.’ Because when she says no, it means no,” the suspect told investigators when they found Junieysis’ phone in the house.
Then he told them she would “turn up tomorrow,” and he repeated this pattern for two days, prompting Merlo’s brother, along with another sister and a friend, to travel to Costa Rica to search for Junieysis.
Junieysis had around 15,000 followers on TikTok, where she frequently shared videos with her 4-year-old twin daughters, whom she had with the main suspect in her femicide.
1. Earthmoving
When the OIJ received the missing person report, they began their investigation and discovered that earthmoving had taken place on the property, a condominium complex of nine residences, with heavy machinery, on the same day Junieysis disappeared.
“A two-meter-deep pit was dug where the deceased was found,” Soto stated.
This earthmoving took place some 400 meters from the house.
“This individual hired machinery to build terraces on some lots and asked the person (backhoe operator)—who is not involved in the events—to dig a hole at the side of the road to contain the water flow; he is using this same hole for this purpose,” explained Soto.
2. The Raid
With the information obtained, a raid was carried out on Wednesday, April 8, starting at 7 p.m., on the property to locate the body.
Judicial personnel excavated delicately for hours and found the woman’s remains. At the time of the operation, the main suspect was not at the house in Santa Ana, as he informed judicial authorities that he would be moving to Cartago, with the twins, where relatives live.
He justified his move by saying that he “didn’t feel safe in the area.”
3. The Twins
When the arrest warrant for Ramírez was issued, the girls were already under the care of the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI)—National Children’s Welfare Board, said Soto.
PANI indicated that the girls were in an alternative protective care arrangement, although they would seek maternal relatives for their custody. “The local office in Santa Ana was locating family members for the evaluations and placement of the girls,” PANI informed, adding that the girls had been evaluated at a hospital and were in good health.
Wilder indicated, through this media outlet, that they were interested in custody. “We have their consent, that’s what we want most,” he stated.
4. Arrest
On finding the body of the young woman, Ramírez was immediately arrested in Cartago and transferred to the Pavas Prosecutor’s Office for questioning.
5. Cause of death
The interim director of the OIJ reported that the victim’s body showed no visible signs of gunshot or knife wounds and was hopeful that an autopsy report would indicate the cause and time of death.
The case is ongoing
The suspect’s sister told CRhoy.com in an interview: “She used to leave the little girls with him. She was already in a (another) relationship. She was seeing a Nicaraguan man who lives in the United States, and they were talking and planning to leave in May. She even asked my brother if they could advance the child support payments four months early so she could leave. Don’t just listen to what her father says, but listen to the real story, because they’re attacking my brother,”
The woman added that she was convinced Junieysis had traveled to the U.S., with the ¢600,000 colones her brother gave her, an advance on child support.
The woman insisted that Junieysis, the victim, had “three plans” with her alleged new partner.
“She wanted him (the alleged boyfriend) to come to Costa Rica, but he said no, that he didn’t want to come to Costa Rica. The other plan was for them both to go to Nicaragua and start a business there. This happened about a month and a half ago, when she told my brother about it. She even told him, ‘If you give me money, I’ll go to Nicaragua and open a soda shop.’ And she was going to sign to give me custody of the girls. The third plan was that this boyfriend told her to go to the United States.”