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Main suspect in U.S. student's death in
Costa Rica could go free
The main suspect in
the slaying here of a U.S. college student could go free next week if
formal charges are not brought against her, officials said Friday.
Next Thursday, Kattia Cruz will have been in prison for 18 months, the
maximum period under Costa Rican law that a suspect can remain detained
without being charged, said a court representative who spoke on customary
condition of anonymity.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Erick Martinez, could not be
reached for comment Friday despite repeated calls to his office.
But the mother of the victim said in an interview with The Associated
Press on Friday that Martinez assured her he would present formal charges
next week.
Cruz was detained in November 2001 as the principal suspect in the
slaying of 23-year-old Shannon Martin, a University of Kansas student
stabbed to death on May 13, 2001, while walking from a bar to her host
family's home in the town of Golfito in southern Costa Rica.
Martin had participated in a study abroad program in Costa Rica in 2000
and returned one week before she was to graduate to gather more specimens
of a tree-dwelling fern she was researching.
Six months later, police arrested Cruz, 27, who later pointed them to
Rafael Zumbado, 48, and Luis Alberto Castro, 38. All three are from
Golfito.
Zumbado and Castro were not detained after their capture under the
condition that they report to officials every 15 days and never leave the
country. But Castro was later arrested and imprisoned on a separate
homicide charge.
The Costa Rican television station Telenoticias reported Thursday that
all three suspects would go on trial next week.
Martin's mother, Jeanette Stauffer, arrived in the Costa Rican capital,
San Jose, two days ago to ensure that the suspects are formally charged.
She appeared on national television Thursday offering a US$10,000
reward for any information about her daughter's killing, particularly
regarding the whereabouts of a taxi driver who apparently drove two men
away from the scene of the crime.
"I am begging this taxi driver to please come forward,"
Stauffer said. "I understand his difficult position, that he wants to
protect his family, but I beg him to provide information about these
suspects."
Without the taxi driver's testimony, the case against Cruz, Castro and
Zumbado is mostly circumstantial, Stauffer said. She said authorities also
are searching for the driver.
"I am desperate," she said. "I fear that this violent
crime could go unsolved."
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