(QCOSTARICA) Santa María (Dota) – A neighbour yesterday found the lifeless body of a nine year old girl, blindfolded, hands tied behind her back and a stab wound in the abdomen, confirmed the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ).
It was around 3:00pm Friday, when Silvino Bonilla, said he paid a visit to the small house made of wood and a zinc roof in the area of Copey de Dota, in the province of San José, on the road to the El Congo farm.
Bonilla was a regular visitor to the home, saying that on this visit he was there to drop off a parcel and a pair of shoes, he had promised the little girl.
What is puzzling investigators is that the whereabouts of the dead girl’s parents is unknown, both Nicaraguan nationals and identified as Ramon Suarez Espinoza and Maria Haydee Miranda. Also not found is where is the girl’s 11 year old brother.
The house is located about one kilometer from the nearest, the main house of the coffee plantation where the Ramon works as a farm hland.
The family has lived in the house owned by the coffee farmer for the last ten years.
The girl was attending third grade at the Escuela República de Bolivia, in Santa María de Dota, some 3 kilometers from the house.
Another neighbour, Leonardo Elizondo, told authorities that the little girl used to walk with her mother to the bus stop every morning, around 6:45am where she was picked up by a school bus and would be dropped off around 4:00pm. The last time he saw the parents was on Wednesday morning.
According to Francisco Segura, the director of the OIJ, their priority is to locate the parents. “We do not know if the girl was a victim of rape. She was found in the bed, with a deep stab wound. The father is a farm worker,” said Segura.
Acquaintances of the family say the father worked the coffee farm during harvest season (between November and March) and selling merchandise door-to-door at other times.
In the search for the two adults and the minor, OIJ agents are being supported by the Operational Support Group (Grupo de Apoyo Operacional – GAO) and the Canine Unit (Unidad Canina) of the MSP, and analyzing several versions of the direction they may have taken.
Source: Nacion.com
Though the cases are different and unrelated, this is the second time a child in less than 10 days was found murdered in rural areas of the country, the last occurring on May 20, in Upala. See report here.
