The horrible deaths of two tourists in Costa Rica over the weekend has gotten bitter after the police did their work, nabbing three suspects, but the judges let two of them go.
In the case of the Mexican woman killed in Santa Teresa, Puntarenas, despite the surviving witness (a British woman who fought off her attacker) singled out the two attackers to police, who promptly detained them, only one of the suspects remains in custody.
María Trinidad Mathus Tenorio, 25, appeared lifeless on the beach, apparently killed in the early hours of Sunday morning when she was approached by two suspects intent on assaulting here.
Mathus was in the company of an English tourist who managed to escape the attack and was able to get help from a security guard, who along with residents caught the assailant, beat him, disrobed him and then let him go. Police caught up with him minutes later; then hours later with his companion in crime. Both men were arrested and identified by the Brit as the men who attacked her and Mathus.
The Fiscalía de Cóbano (prosecutor’s office) confirmed they had requested preventive detention for the two men, identified by their last names Esquivel Cerdas and Mendoza Benavides. However, the judge imposed remand (3 months) on only one, Esquivel and ordered the other released without any preventive measures. Think he will stick around for trial?
Across the country, in the province of Limon, the suspect in the killing of the Spanish woman, Arantxa López Gutiérrez, 31, the Juzgado Penal de Pococí rejected the request for preventive detention against the man identified by his last name Diaz.
Lopez was vacationing in Tortuguero de Pococí with her husband when on Friday night she went for a jog. Her lifeless and scantily clad body was found Saturday morning a short distance from her hotel. The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) believe it a sexual attack.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, during a hearing held on Monday, the judge rejected the request for pre-trial detention on the grounds that “there is no degree of criminal probability on the part of the accused.”
Yes, but Diaz was not totally free, because the court put him under the orders of the immigration service give his “irregular” immigration status. That is to say, he is illegal in the country. Authorities did not disclose his nationality, only to say he had arrived in the country three months prior and was working in an area hotel and he may have contact with the Spanish woman the same Friday she arrived in Tortuguero with her husband and a group of other tourists.
Tortuguero is only accessible by boat, a 60 to 90-minute boat ride from the mainland.
