OIJ Says Death of
Wealthy American Was Murder, Not Suicide
The Ministerio Público informed on Friday
that the death of US millionaire John Felix
Bender is being investigated as a murder,
ruling out suicide that was first thought.
Sources close to case say investigators have
found evidence that leads them to believe
the rich American to have been murdered
rather than to have taken his own life.
Bender, 43 years of age, was found inside
his mansion in La Florida de Barú, Pérez
Zeledón, with a gun shot wound to the head.
A judge had first denied investigator a
seach of the home valued at us$4.5 million
dollars, however, a Juzgado Penal de Pérez
Zeledón later conceded to issuing a search
warrant, where investigators found that
Bender was trafficking in jewels and
precious stones.
The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ)
siad they found a number of valuable objects
in the home, including bags full of
contraband jewels and precious stones,
firearms that included assault rifles among
the exclusive wines and expensive lamps.
At first the OIJ believed that Bender had
committed suicide. However, the experience
of investigators taking a close look at the
scene suspected found play, convincing the
Fiscalía to declare it a homicide instead.
Investigators said that the crime scene was
staged to make it appear a suicide. In the
bedroom where the man had alledgdly taken
his own life and the entry wound, as well as
the physical and mental well being of the
man, led investigators think that the man
had been murdered.
Bender had been in Costa Rica for almost ten
years, earning his wealth on Wall Street
The Bender home in Pérez Zeledón, |
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