Tuesday 17
June
2003
Canadian
questioned in two unsolved murder cases
But the more
Bruce Harris, director of a Casa Alianza, learned about Holly Jones's
horrific slaying, the more it reminded him
of the unsolved descuartizador or
hatchet man case in his own country.
And even more
remarkable, a Canadian had been a suspect in
the case in San Jose, Costa Rica, until he
left the country.
"My
first reaction was, Harris, don't be
ridiculous, Toronto and San Jose are 5,000
kilometres apart. But there are many
similarities between the two cases,"
said Mr. Harris, executive director of Casa
Alianza in Latin America, a sister agency of
Toronto's Covenant House. "The modus
operandi was the same and the victims in all
three cases are girls."
Parts of
10-year-old Holly's dismembered body were
discovered May 13, the day after she
disappeared while walking home from a
friend's house. Her body parts were found
floating along Toronto's water front, in a
gym bag and a small suitcase. Toronto police
have set up a Holly Task Force in a case
closely followed by the public, frightened
for the safety of their own children.
In Costa
Rica, few remember the grisly disappearances
and slayings of two teenage girls, 2½ years
ago. The body parts of the victims were
found cut up, in plastic bags deposited in
rivers around San Jose, the country's
capital.
Police
investigated several suspects, including the
Canadian, but never detained or charged him
because of a lack of hard evidence tying him
to the slayings.
Mr. Harris
passed along details about the case — and
about the Canadian suspect who left Costa
Rica in October, 2001 — to Toronto police,
and he hopes they will investigate any links
to Holly's killing.
Sergeant Jim
Muscat, spokesman for the Holly Task Force,
could not comment on the Costa Rican case
except to say that police are investigating
all 2,300 tips that have come in from all
over the world. "Each tip is taken
seriously and prioritized and
investigated," he said.
There are key
similarities between Holly's slaying and
those of Yvette Badilla Leon, 14, and
Jaqueline Rodriguez Rios, 16 — although
there are also some significant differences.
Yvette and
Jacqueline sold their bodies to support drug
habits, while Holly was an innocent school
girl from a loving family. The Costa Ricans
were also older than Holly, although Latin
Americans tend to be smaller than North
Americans.
Holly
attended Grade 5 at a local Catholic school.
Jaqueline and Yvette were troubled and lived
on the streets. But to Mr. Harris, all three
girls are victims of a psychotic murderer
who disposed of their bodies in an unusually
cruel manner.
"They
were all vulnerable young people," he
said. "As time goes by, cases go cold
very, very quickly. We shouldn't overlook
any possible leads."
Sources told
The Globe and Mail that the Canadian suspect
was identified by other young prostitutes in
San Jose. They told police he took them to
his home and sexually assaulted them; they
said he was responsible for killing Yvette
and Jacqueline. The man had apparently been
physically wounded by a young prostitute,
giving him a possible motive for vengeance.
Police
searched the Canadian suspect's home, but
did not find enough evidence to detain him,
said Fabian Barrantes, a spokesman for the
Costa Rica prosecutor's office.
"This
has been a difficult case, an ugly case. It
is still open and we continue to
investigate," Mr. Barrantes said,
noting that if the Canadian returns to Costa
Rica, he will not be re-interviewed unless
more evidence surfaces.
Jacqueline,
the first of the two Costa Rican girls to be
slain, was last seen in a crack house on
Dec. 7, 2000. Days later, her left arm was
found in a small river in a San Jose suburb.
Police identified her through a small tattoo
on her finger. On Dec. 19, a scavenger found
her head in a plastic bag in the city's
rubbish dump. Two weeks later, her right leg
turned up in the city's Cucubres River.
On Feb. 6,
2001, the torso of Yvette, who had
disappeared the month before, was found in a
black plastic bag in a river that runs
through an upscale residential area. Police
later found her left arm in the Cucubres
River, 300 metres from where Jacqueline's
body parts were picked up.
Police said
the assailant cut off his victims' limbs
with a hack saw (Toronto police have not
said what Holly's killer used).
Mr. Harris
plans to take the unsolved killings to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in
Washington. He will argue that the Costa
Rican state failed to protect the lives of
these children and did not act on a Casa
Alianza complaint about a brothel near where
these girls disappeared.
While Holly's
case has galvanized public sympathy in
Toronto, most Costa Ricans can barely
remember the hatchet man case. "The
murder of a child anywhere in the world is a
tragedy. It shouldn't matter where they came
from," said Mr. Harris, whose
organization fights for the rights of street
children.
Prostitution
is legal in Costa Rica, as long as the women
are 18 or older, and the country has become
a hotbed for sex tourists.
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