tourist killed costa rica

Suspected Murder of American Tourist in Costa Rica Is Latest in Rising Tide of Violence in the Country

T he disappearance of American tourist Carla Stefaniak in Costa Rica – and the grim discovery of a body in the backyard of her AirBnB – is shedding light on the growing violence in the Central American country, which had long been considered safe.

Authorities are awaiting an autopsy to confirm that the remains, found on Tuesday , are those of Stefaniak. The 36-year-old Florida resident disappeared Nov. 28 from the capital, San Jose. She had been visiting Costa Rica with her sister-in-law, April Burton, to celebrate her birthday. According to a GoFundMe, Burton left last Tuesday while Stefaniak was scheduled to fly home the following day. Although she checked in for her flight, Stefaniak never made it on board.

A week after she went missing, police confirmed they found a body in the backyard of the Airbnb where Stefaniak had been staying.

Costa Rica has garnered a reputation for being one of the safest countries in Central America, particularly for tourists. Known for its rainforest and beaches, the Central American country is sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua.

Recently though, the murder rate in the country of 4.9 million has been on the rise, with a record-high of 603 people killed in 2017, Bloomberg reported. That’s a 63% increase compared to 10 years ago.

In August Costa Rica was in the spotlight when two female tourists were killed within a week. According to Costa Rican news site QCOSTARICA.com, a 31-year-old Spanish woman was found strangled to death near Tortuguero National Park and days later a 25-year-old Mexican tourist was drowned to death at El Carmen beach in Santa Teresa.

The brutal deaths were a huge concern to Costa Rican authorities at the time. Shortly after the murders security minister Michael Soto told Bloomberg , “There has already been damage done to the country’s image.”

In October, the body of 62-year-old Vermont-native Thomas Cook was found in a shallow grave after he was being reported missing for weeks, Fox News reported. Cook had retired and was living in a small town outside of San Jose. Police are investigating his cause of death.

The recent string of homicides might have financial consequences for the country as well. Tourism makes up a large portion of the nation’s economy.

Bloomberg reported that Costa Rica had nearly 3 million tourists visit the country in 2017, with almost half the visitors coming from the U.S. and Canada. In 2017 alone tourism brought in $3.9 billion for the economy, according to the tourism chamber.

According to the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Travel & Tourism Office, Costa Rica ranked 15th among international destinations for Americans, with more than 1 million visiting in 2017. However, tourism dipped in 2017 as the number of American visitors declined for the first time since 2009.

While officials have not stated a reason for the decline in American tourism, it comes as there is a spike in crime in the country. According to InSight Crime , a nonprofit news organization that focuses on crime in Latin America, in the first six months of 2018, Costa Rica registered 302 homicides, an increase of 29 during the same period the previous year. Officials from the Judicial Investigation Agency (Organismo de Investigación Judicial) project that 2018 will break 2017’s record with an estimated 625 homicides.

But despite the rise in murders, Costa Rica is still one of the safest country in the region. The homicide rate as of 2017 was 12.1 out of 100,000, according to data compiled by InSight Crime. That’s still lower than the murder rate in other top destinations for American tourists like Mexico, 22.5; the Dominican Republic, 14.9; and Jamaica, 55.7.

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Family 'Devastated' After Costa Rica Security Guard Who Killed American Tourist Gets Just 16 Years

Bismarck Espinoza Martínez was convicted of stabbing Carla Stefaniak, who was visiting Costa Rica for a birthday trip, on the final night of her stay.

A Costa Rica security guard has been sentenced to 16 years behind bars for killing an American tourist, who had been visiting the country for a birthday trip.

Bismarck Espinoza Martínez was convicted Monday of homicidio simple, or second-degree murder, for the fatal stabbing of 36-year-old Carla Stefaniak, according to The Tico Times .

Stefaniak, who had been living in Florida, traveled to a Costa Rica resort in November 2018 to celebrate her birthday with her sister-in-law April Antonieta, but Antonieta had to leave the trip one day before Stefaniak, according to the Tampa Bay Times .

Stefaniak had arranged for a driver to pick her up at 8:30 a.m. the next morning to head to the airport, but she never made her flight. Her body was later discovered half-buried in a wooded area behind the Villa Buena Vista resort in Escazu where she had been staying.

Her final communication with her family occurred around 8 p.m. on Nov. 27 — the night before her scheduled flight — when Stefaniak mentioned that she was going to ask a guard for some water.

Martínez had been working as a guard at the Airbnb resort at the time.

Before she disappeared, Stefaniak had described the lodging to her family as “sketchy.”

Along with the 16-year prison sentence, Martínez was ordered to pay the family about $53,000 in compensation, The Tico Times reports.

Martínez was found not guilty of the more serious charge of homicidio calificado, or first-degree murder, the paper reports.

Her father, Carlos Caicedo, voiced his frustration and pain to local media outlet CRhoy.com after learning of the verdict and what he believed was the short 16-year sentence.  

Lawyers for the family had said they were hoping for 60 years in prison, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The Finding Carla Facebook page also remarked on the sentence Tuesday.

“As you can (imagine), the family & friends are devastated by the news and they will need some time,” the post said. “This has been a long exhausting year and to end up here is heartbreaking all over again.”

During the investigation, the medical examiner determined that Stefaniak had been stabbed seven times. One of the stab wounds was in the palm of her hand, suggesting she may have tried to defend herself in her final moments.

The attack had been described as sexually motivated.

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American Tourist on Birthday Trip Was Killed by Security Guard at Costa Rica Resort

Bismarck Espinoza Martinez stabbed Carla Stefaniak to death in 2018

A former resort security guard at an Airbnb in Costa Rica has been convicted of killing an American tourist in 2018, according to local reports.

Carla Stefaniak, 36, was on vacation in Costa Rica in late November of that year. She was set to return home on November 28 — her birthday, which the trip was planned to celebrate. She checked into her flight online, but never boarded the plane.

On the day before her disappearance, she texted her sister-in-law and said that conditions were “pretty sketchy” at the Villa Buena Vista resort in the San Jose suburb of Escazu, where she was staying.

Her partially-buried body was found in a wooded area near the resort, covered in plastic bags. An autopsy found that she died as a result of head injuries , but also suffered multiple stab wounds on her neck in what authorities described as a sexually-motivated attack .

A security guard working the property , Bismarck Espinoza Martinez, was later arrested in connection with her death.

According to a report from Costa Rican newspaper La Nación , Martinez was found guilty of homicide for fatally stabbing Stefaniak. He has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Walter Espinoza, the General Director of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department, said that the 32-year-old security guard became a suspect after contradicting his story regarding Stefaniak’s whereabouts to police.

On December 13, Stefaniak’s family wrote on a Facebook page launched after her disappearance that sources involved in the investigation have told them more than one person was likely involved in her death.

• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

“In fact, the doubt extends to that there may be up to three or four possible people involved,” Stefaniak’s family wrote. “We have been saying this since day 1. This was organized by more than one person as soon as Carla booked the place.”

It’s unclear whether other people will be charged in Stefaniak’s death. No other suspects are currently in custody.

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Suspected Murder of American Tourist in Costa Rica Is Latest in Rising Tide of Violence in the Country

The disappearance of American tourist Carla Stefaniak in Costa Rica – and the grim discovery of a body in the backyard of her AirBnB – is shedding light on the growing violence in the Central American country, which had long been considered safe.

Authorities are awaiting an autopsy to confirm that the remains, found on Tuesday , are those of Stefaniak. The 36-year-old Florida resident disappeared Nov. 28 from the capital, San Jose. She had been visiting Costa Rica with her sister-in-law, April Burton, to celebrate her birthday. According to a GoFundMe, Burton left last Tuesday while Stefaniak was scheduled to fly home the following day. Although she checked in for her flight, Stefaniak never made it on board.

A week after she went missing, police confirmed they found a body in the backyard of the Airbnb where Stefaniak had been staying.

Costa Rica has garnered a reputation for being one of the safest countries in Central America, particularly for tourists. Known for its rainforest and beaches, the Central American country is sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua.

Recently though, the murder rate in the country of 4.9 million has been on the rise, with a record-high of 603 people killed in 2017, Bloomberg reported. That’s a 63% increase compared to 10 years ago.

In August Costa Rica was in the spotlight when two female tourists were killed within a week. According to Costa Rican news site QCOSTARICA.com, a 31-year-old Spanish woman was found strangled to death near Tortuguero National Park and days later a 25-year-old Mexican tourist was drowned to death at El Carmen beach in Santa Teresa.

The brutal deaths were a huge concern to Costa Rican authorities at the time. Shortly after the murders security minister Michael Soto told Bloomberg , “There has already been damage done to the country’s image.”

In October, the body of 62-year-old Vermont-native Thomas Cook was found in a shallow grave after he was being reported missing for weeks, Fox News reported. Cook had retired and was living in a small town outside of San Jose. Police are investigating his cause of death.

The recent string of homicides might have financial consequences for the country as well. Tourism makes up a large portion of the nation’s economy.

Bloomberg reported that Costa Rica had nearly 3 million tourists visit the country in 2017, with almost half the visitors coming from the U.S. and Canada. In 2017 alone tourism brought in $3.9 billion for the economy, according to the tourism chamber.

According to the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Travel & Tourism Office, Costa Rica ranked 15th among international destinations for Americans, with more than 1 million visiting in 2017. However, tourism dipped in 2017 as the number of American visitors declined for the first time since 2009.

While officials have not stated a reason for the decline in American tourism, it comes as there is a spike in crime in the country. According to InSight Crime , a nonprofit news organization that focuses on crime in Latin America, in the first six months of 2018, Costa Rica registered 302 homicides, an increase of 29 during the same period the previous year. Officials from the Judicial Investigation Agency (Organismo de Investigación Judicial) project that 2018 will break 2017’s record with an estimated 625 homicides.

But despite the rise in murders, Costa Rica is still one of the safest country in the region. The homicide rate as of 2017 was 12.1 out of 100,000, according to data compiled by InSight Crime. That’s still lower than the murder rate in other top destinations for American tourists like Mexico, 22.5; the Dominican Republic, 14.9; and Jamaica, 55.7.

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Family of Carla Stefaniak sues Airbnb, Costa Rican resort where she was killed

Carla Stefaniak was killed last month and a security guard has been charged.

The family of a woman who was killed while on vacation in Costa Rica last month are suing Airbnb and the resort where she stayed.

Carla Stefaniak, 36, who lived in Miami, was found dead Dec. 3 after she was last seen on Nov. 27 -- the night before her birthday. She had traveled to San Jose, the capital of the Central American country, to celebrate her 36th birthday with her sister-in-law.

Bismarck Espinoza Martinez, 32, a security guard at Villa Buena Vista, was arrested for Stefaniak's murder .

"He wasn't legally authorized to work. Yet, nevertheless, he was given his own apartment there on the grounds, an apartment that was coincidentally directly next to Carla's rented villa," the family's attorney, Jeffrey Gordon, told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS .

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, Florida, where her parents live.

The suit accuses the resort of negligence over the suspect's hiring and retention. The lawsuit makes the same claims against Airbnb, and specifically names a number of executives of the company, including Airbnb Global Head of Trust and Risk Nick Shapiro.

(MORE: 'She was my baby,' says distraught father of American woman slain in Costa Rica)

Villa Buena Vista, the resort where Stefaniak stayed, uses Airbnb to promote its properties and rent out villas.

"Defendants, AIRBNB and VILLA BUENA VISTA, negligently failed to perform any kind of background check or otherwise take any measures to determine whether Martinez was fit for the officiality and authority and power and control provided to him," the lawsuit states.

Stefaniak's body was found partially nude and decomposing, wrapped in plastic bags, in the woods near the villa she rented. According to an autopsy, she died of blunt force trauma to the head and was stabbed in her neck.

Officials said earlier this month that a preliminary assessment indicated the killer's motivation was sexual, but additional tests were being conducted.

The lawsuit also states multiple people were likely involved in "removing and disposing Carla Stefaniak's body from the Airbnb villa." No one else has been arrested in the case besides Espinosa.

(MORE: American woman's murder in Costa Rica may have been sexually motivated: Officials)

"The harm to Stefaniak caused by MARTINEZ was a foreseeable and well-known hazard of the industry," the lawsuit states.

Airbnb said in a statement to WFTS: "Our hearts are broken for Carla’s family, friends, and loved ones. We reached out to provide support to them during this unimaginably difficult time. We have also been in contact with Costa Rican and American law enforcement authorities, and we are standing by to support their investigation, as justice must be served quickly. The Villa Le Mas has been removed from the platform."

The lawsuit says the plaintiffs, Stefaniak's brothers Mario and Carlos Caicedo Jr., who manage the family's estate, are seeking "in excess of $15,000."

"As a direct result of conduct described herein, the estate has suffered loss of net accumulations and the statutory survivors have suffered the loss of support and services and mental pain and suffering as a result of the injury and death of their child," according to the filing.

Carlos Caicedo Sr., Carla's father, told WFTS he can't shake the image of his daughter's brutalized body in a Costa Rica morgue.

"I have to tell you that I'm going to lose the two loves that are part of me. My mom is so sick," he said. "She is so sick. I'm going to lose the two loves, big loves of my life, my mom and Carla."

ABC News' Bill Hutchinson and Devin Villacis contributed to this report.

Costa Rica’s peace is disturbed: Homicides have increased by 66% in the past decade

In the central american country, crime is breaking records. there are more shootings in the streets and more collateral victims. meanwhile, the minister of public security has been criticized for asking the population to confront drug traffickers.

Murders are no longer newsworthy in Costa Rica, as the word “shooting” becomes more and more frequent in the local media headlines. And homicides are no longer taking place just during the night. Recently, an armed attack took place at 9AM on a busy highway in the capital, San José.

Costa Rica – a country internationally recognized for its peaceful atmosphere – now has a homicide rate that is inconsistent with its reputation. In the last decade, murders have increased at a rate almost unlike any country in Latin America. There have even been recent attacks inside schools, or between schoolchildren.

The 2022 murder report was the highest in the country’s history: a figure 66.5% higher than that of 2012, for a record rate of 12.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile, the 2023 numbers already exceed the homicides that took place in the first three months of 2022 by 30%.

Disputes between criminal gangs – mostly dedicated to drug trafficking – are no longer confined to the marginal neighborhoods or the coastal regions, where cocaine passes from south to north. Over the past two decades, increases in poverty and inequality, budget cuts to the police force and the growing influence of international gangs have put Costa Rica against the ropes. While the Central American nation boasts of having abolished its army 75 years ago to dedicate resources to social investment, recent results haven’t been good.

Costa Rica is no longer just a transit point for the drug business or a territory of warehouses with small shipments of narcotics. It is now home to violent local gangs that no longer need the control of Mexican or Colombian cartels. Rather, these cartels are now their partners, clients or competitors.

There are now several networks of Costa Ricans who have learned to fight with bullets and blood to maintain or increase their illicit business, whose profits are increasingly camouflaged by the legal economy.

This landscape isn’t entirely new. The records of the last decade show that criminal groups have decimated each other, leading to one of the largest increases in homicides on the continent, according to a comparison published by the local weekly Universidad. The paper also notes that, in countries with greater histories of violence, there have been more notable improvements. But since September of 2022, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves has said that the situation has gotten out of hand, as the wars between gangs have become totally unscrupulous.

It’s no longer rare for a person to hear gunshots from their home. On the last Sunday in February, Samuel Arroyo – an eight-year-old boy – was killed after being hit by a stray bullet from an AK-47, while he was sleeping in his room.

Arroyo – the son of a police officer – died in the same district of San José where the headquarters of the Presidency of the Republic is located. But it turns out that the detainee held responsible for the shooting was also a minor – a 15-year-old teenager – possibly related to one of the local groups that sell drugs to middlemen or consumers.

“It is outrageous, inexplicable and unacceptable,” President Chaves stated, referring to the murder of Arroyo. However, in 2022, it was he who denied responsibility for the insecurity crisis, arguing that, in May of that year, his government had barely started. He said that his numbers would begin to count at the beginning of 2023. Yet, this year has brought about even more violence than the previous one, appearing to overwhelm the executive branch.

This is why Chaves has chosen to blame the judicial system, offloading the task of legal reforms that he is pushing in the Legislative Assembly. His administration has also installed technology in the port of Limón – the country’s main port – to monitor cocaine shipments that are being smuggled to Europe.

The figures, however, are a rude awakening for a country that thrives on tourists, investors and digital nomads. Reported assaults rose by 19.5% between 2021 and 2022 – one every 49 minutes – home robberies went up by 15% – one every 80 minutes – and carjackings and the theft of shipping containers rose by 30% and 14% respectively. Murders are up by 11.7%, with one person being killed every 13 hours, according to figures from the Judicial Investigation Agency.

Two-thirds of Costa Rican homicides are linked to organized crime and 72% are from gunshots. Collateral damage has grown drastically. In 2021, there were seven collateral victims of intentional homicides. But in 2022, there were 18 – one every 20 days – making for an increase of 128%.

This year, so far, shows that these indicators are worsening. Jorge Torres — the minister of Public Security and former head of the Intelligence and Security Directorate – has been widely criticized for having candidly said in an interview that Costa Rican society is too domesticated. He said that, in local neighborhoods, residents should confront criminals and demand that they stop selling drugs.

Minister Torres said that he had done this himself in his neighborhood, confronting a man who “had an accent like a Colombian.” However, the vast majority of those arrested and prosecuted for drug-trafficking in Costa Rica are, in fact, Costa Rican citizens.

“There is no clear public policy [to address this]... but the country’s highest security officer is telling us that it’s the citizens’ fault for being too tame. It’s clear that they want to sell insecurity as the responsibility or fault of the citizenry,” scoffed Geison Valverde, an opposition deputy from the Caribbean province of Limón, where the homicide rate almost tripled the national average in 2022.

Given the limited response that different political and social sectors have attributed to the Chaves government, the president of the Legislative Assembly – Rodrigo Arias – decided to convene emergency meetings in March with experts and the authorities. Meanwhile, some deputies have been praising the strong-arm policies of President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. Others are insisting on the need for actions within the democratic regime, without abandoning social programs.

“We have to attack the problem as quickly as possible to avoid more deaths and the deterioration of the country, because we’ll stop having a clean democracy… because these things attack democratic principles,” said Congresswoman Gloria Navas, president of the Commission on Legislative Security and Drug Trafficking. She also emphasized the risk of escalating crime taking a toll on the tourism industry.

The United States is the main country of origin for tourists to Costa Rica. The embassy in San José issued a reminder alert to its citizens on March 1, regarding the risks of insecurity in Costa Rica and the increase in violent crimes. This came just a week after President Chaves – in a televised appearance – visited the southern region of the country, escorted by heavily-armed guards… an unprecedented image in the country’s recent history.

“They threaten to kill me every day,” Chaves justified, attributing these threats to police actions against drug trafficking operations. However, there are no reported complaints or open investigations about these alleged threats.

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American among six tortured, shot and burned in massacre at Costa Rica cattle and coffee farm

The 61-year-old was in the process of selling his property for $1.8m to be closer to family in the us, article bookmarked.

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An American cattle and coffee farmer found dead with his five farm hands at a ranch in Costa Rica had been trying to sell his property to return to the United States and be closer to family.

Stephen Paul Sandusky, 61, was a United States citizen and Costa Rica resident, according to the US Embassy in the Central American country.

The former Florida resident retired to a farm in Llano Bonito de Buenos Aires de Puntarenas, about 200km south east of San Jose.

He listed the property for $1.8m in 2019 to return to the US, but the Covid pandemic hit and left it on the market for the past two years without a buyer, listing agent Diego Quesada told The Independent.

“He wanted to go back to his family and he wanted to go back to the States,” Mr Quesada said.

Mr Sandusky first bought the property 25 years ago before expanding it in 2005 and deciding to sell in 2019, Mr Quesada said. The divorced father of two had been in the country since the late 1990s, according to Q Costa Rica .

“Since then and after the pandemic started he didn’t lower the price of the property, and so far the listing was active and still looking to sell,” Mr Quesada said. “He was a very nice guy.”

He moved to Costa Rica to begin farming because he “wanted to live in peace”, his lawyer Jorge Enrique Infante told Q Costa Rica .

“He was a very noble, kind, and generous person. He told me that he wanted to learn agriculture and that is why he bought the farm. He started with cattle and then he realized that he had a small profit,” Mr Infante told the outlet. “Years ago we stopped having a professional relationship but about a year ago I ran into him in a supermarket and we were talking. Yes, he told me that they robbed him a lot”.

Authorities suspect robbery was the motive behind the massacre, which left all six victims either doused in gas, burned or shot. The Costa Ricans killed were Daniel Quesada Cascante, 44, his wife Alina Villarevia, 41, and their son, Daniel Quesada, 20. Susan Zúñiga Rodriguez, 40, and Borbón Muñoz, 38, were also killed, according to TV Sur .

Mr Sandusky hired Mr Quesada for maintenance on a vehicle, and Mr Quesada’s family along with their friends joined for the trip, according to ACHR Noticias .

Police suspect several gunmen went to the farm to rob the property as several tools and items missing from the house were presumed to be stolen, the outlet reported.

The house was also heavily damaged with broken windows and a burned truck, where some of the bodies were found.

Don Eladio Quesada told ACHR Noticias that he found the bodies on Sunday.

"We walked in and found my son’s body fully burned, the scene with the women around the car, it was hard to find all the bodies burned and wrapped in tires and some with shots," he said.

He had travelled to the property after his family failed to return home, Mr Quesada’s sister told TV Sur.

"Daniel always went with (his father) César because he was also a mechanic and they worked together; Alina was going to accompany them because they say it is a very beautiful place," she told the broadcaster.

Mr Sandusky’s farm had been for sale since 2019, and locals claimed he had been attacked on previous occasions but was loved among the local community, according to Le Teja .

Mr Sandusky’s farm was listed for US$1.8 million on Chirripo Real Estate . It is on 70 hectares of pasture with 20 hectares of coffee plantation, and rolling hills for livestock pasture and a variety of fruit trees surrounding the single-storey home.

The US Embassy would not release further details on Mr Sandusky due to privacy concerns, according to the Associated Press.

Costa Rica is considered the least violent nation in Central America with a homicide rate of 11 per 100,000 people each year. By comparison, the US homicide rate in 2019 was 5 per 100,000 people, according to the most recent figures from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

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Guard who killed Carla Stefaniak gets 16 years in Costa Rican prison

• Daniel Figueroa IV Former Times Reporter

A security guard at a Costa Rican resort was found guilty Monday of killing Carla Stefaniak, a 36-year-old Florida woman who went missing during a birthday trip to the Central American country in November 2018.

Bismarck Espinoza Martínez, of Nicaragua, was then sentenced to 16 years in prison by a panel of local judges, Eduardo Rojas, Simón Guillén and José Alberto Vargas.

The verdict marked the end of an emotionally charged trial for the family of Stefniak, who was born in Venezuela, moved to Tampa in 2000 and then to Miami in 2012. Much of her family still lives in the Tampa Bay area.

Her Carlos Caicedo traveled from his native Venezuela to testify in the trial, according to a report from Costa Rican news website CRhoy.com . Caicedo had to fight back tears during the trial, according to video footage, and at one point he addressed Martínez directly, telling him to confess if he still considered himself a man. At one point Rojas intervened, asking the father to calm down.

Stefaniak was visiting Costa Rica for her 36th birthday with her sister-in-law April Antonieta. The pair traveled together, but Antonieta was scheduled to leave the day before Stefaniak. They took an Uber to the airport together, then Stefaniak went back to her Airbnb apartment and arranged for the same driver to return at 8:30 a.m. the next day and take her to the airport.

Stefaniak was staying at Villa Buena Vista resort in the San Jose suburb of Escazu, where Martínez worked as a guard.

During her stay she communicated with family via Facetime calls and WhatsApp messages. Stefaniak said the place seemed “sketchy.” Her last message was received at about 8 p.m. on Nov. 27, when she said she was going to ask a guard, possibly Martínez, for water.

Stefaniak didn’t board her flight or arrive in Miami the next day, so authorities launched a search for the missing woman. They traveled from Riverview to Costa Rica to help. Nearly a week later, on Dec. 3, search dogs found her partially buried body in a mountainous wooded area behind the resort property.

A Costa Rican medical examiner said Stefaniak was stabbed seven times, including once in the palm of her hand, indicating she was trying to defend herself from what prosecutors described as a sexually motivated attack.

Days later, Martínez was arrested in her murder and formally charged in July 2019. After Monday’s verdict, lawyers for Stefaniak’s family asked that he be sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Defense attorney Guido Núñez argued that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict his client. The medical examiner said Stefaniak’s body was too decomposed when it was found, Núñez said, and DNA under her nails could not be connected to Martínez.

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But the state had a witness who said Martinez’s mother told her he had confessed to the crime. Carla González, a maid at the resort, told the judges she knew the defendant’s family well and got him the security job at the resort.

Martínez’s mother told González that he confessed to the crime, González told the court.

In December of 2018, members of Stefaniak’s family sured AirBnB in federal court. The case is currently in arbitration.

Stefaniak’s family could not be reached for comment.

Former Times Reporter

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A dash cam video captured the final seconds before a vehicle south of Quepos with five people in it apparently made a sudden U turn into ongoing traffic, causing the fatal accident claiming at least three lives.

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Two passengers survived the initial crash and were reportedly transported to the hospital in Quepos. Their condition was unavailable.

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For years, travelers have flocked to Costa Rica for its serene beaches, lush wildlife and vibrant cities.

But the Central American country has been rocked with crime in the past year, and a spike in killings and fatal accidents involving foreigners have threatened Costa Rica’s reputation as one of the safest countries in the region for tourists.

In December, The Post reported on the murder of Carla Stefaniak , a 36-year-old Miami resident who was traveling to San Jose for her birthday. Her body was discovered in a shallow grave near the Airbnb where she was staying. A security guard at the Airbnb listing has been arrested in connection with her case. Meanwhile, local authorities said the killing was sexually motivated.

Unfortunately, Stefaniak was just the latest in a string of violence against Costa Rican tourists. Two unidentified female travelers were found dead near Tortuguero National Park in August. One 31-year-old woman’s body was discovered with strangle marks around her neck, and a 25-year-old woman drowned after she was attacked by two men, reports The Chicago Tribune . Over the summer, a 19-year-old Canadian tourist was robbed and raped after a local tried to offer her a ride from San Jose to Puerto Viejo, reports The Costa Rica Star .

And in October, authorities said that Tom Cook, a 62-year-old “hippie” from Vermont, was murdered in Jaco , a surf town in Costa Rica after he went missing for two months.

Costa Rica has seen a rise in murders in 2012, and a record 603 people were killed in 2017. Meanwhile, authorities told Bloomberg that they’re forecasting an even higher number in 2018.

“There has already been damage done to the country’s image,” Security minister Michael Soto told Bloomberg.

According to the Costa Rican Tourism Board , about 3 million travelers visit the country every year. But in 2017, the number of American tourists dropped for the first time since 2009.

This could spell bad news for Costa Rica, as tourism brings in about $3.5 billion for its economy.

“These incidents infuriate us,” President Carlos Alvarado told Bloomberg, and he promised “intense work” to address the situation.

According to the US embassy website, “Crime is increasing in Costa Rica and US citizens are frequent victims … US citizens are encouraged to exercise a high level of caution and vigilance due to increasing levels of violent crime.”

And the US embassy has advised visitors to be extra cautious in the cities of Liberia, San Rafael and San Jose due to crime.

Costa Rica’s Tourism Board did not immediately return a request for comment.

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Costa Rica, laid-back land of ‘pura vida,’ succumbing to drug violence

PUNTARENAS, Costa Rica — All was quiet that night on the Promenade of the Tourists, the famed boulevard overlooking this coastal city’s white-sand beach and softly lapping waves.

But just a few miles from the bars and seafood cafes, Maribel Sandí was startled awake by rapid-fire metallic bursts.

The 59-year-old grandmother emerged from her corrugated metal shack. It was dark, past 11 p.m., a muggy January night. Here, in the Bella Vista neighborhood, where young people sell scrap metal to buy crack, neighbors had gathered on the dirt road.

“There was a dead man,” Sandí said. The 21-year-old’s body had been “ripped apart” by a barrage from AK-47 assault rifles.

“We had never seen that,” she said.

Costa Rica has long been a model of progressive democracy in Latin America, a nation that abolished its army in 1948 and set aside a quarter of its territory for conservation . Hundreds of thousands of American and European tourists fly in annually to surf, hike the pristine rainforests and enjoy the laid-back “pura vida” vibe.

Now, this longtime refuge of tranquility is grappling with a jump in violence, driven by a little-remarked-on phenomenon that is bedeviling several Latin American countries. Once merely way stations for illegal drugs heading to the United States or Europe, they are suffering abuse problems of their own.

Costa Rica is just one example. Farther north, in Mexico, cartels that pump out methamphetamines for Americans also are feeding a growing domestic market. The number of Mexicans being treated for amphetamine addiction — mostly involving meth — ballooned by 218 percent from 2013 to 2020, according to the latest U.N. World Drug Report .

In South America, the number of people using cocaine more than doubled in a decade, reaching an estimated 4.7 million people in 2020, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported. Consumption was particularly high in Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador and Argentina, key transshipment points for Europe-bound cocaine.

Rising drug use does not always lead to more violence. But in some countries, battles over street sales have fueled an increase in bloodshed. Ecuador’s homicide rate tripled between 2020 and 2022 as drug groups fought over domestic sales as well as export routes. Costa Rica suffered a record 656 homicides last year, up 12 percent over 2021. In Mexico, disputes between dealers selling crystal meth have sent death tolls soaring in cities including Tijuana, Juárez and Manzanillo.

“The problem has come home to roost,” Laura Chinchilla, a former president of Costa Rica, told The Washington Post. “Our own people are using drugs and making it possible for these crime groups to exist.”

The major Mexican and Colombian trafficking organizations have little presence in Costa Rica. But for years, local criminals have provided logistical support, such as gasoline and motorboats, for the big cartels that move cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Europe.

At some point, the cartels began paying these low-level contractors in drugs. Many began selling that cocaine or turning it into cheap crack, creating local demand.

Small-scale drug feuds are behind the majority of homicides in Puntarenas, one of Costa Rica’s seven provinces. “Most of those killed are young people,” said Randall Picado, the top police official in the region.

One recent afternoon, Picado pulled his truck over on the Promenade of the Tourists. Down the street, visitors boarded ferries heading to some of the country’s most magnificent beaches. In front of him, across the glittering Pacific, was the hazy outline of the Nicoya Peninsula, where celebrities including Mel Gibson, Matt Damon and Tom Brady have vacationed. Picado rarely has to worry about crime there.

“The problem is focused in the barrios,” the poor inland neighborhoods, he said. “Not in the tourist zones.”

Nonetheless, Costa Ricans are anxious. The country’s security minister made headlines in December when he appeared to praise the ruthless anti-gang policies of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. The Costa Rican government scrambled to clarify that it was not planning anything similar to Bukele’s mass roundups and indefinite detention of suspects — although some politicians applauded the idea.

The expanding drug-addiction crises in Latin America are exacerbated by a lack of professional police, effective judicial systems and treatment facilities. So far, there has been little hemispheric coordination to address the problem, said Chinchilla, who has remained a prominent voice on security issues since leaving the presidency in 2014.

In one sign of the disorganization, she said, countries such as Costa Rica are spending limited resources busting marijuana shipments. At the same time, the United States — home to the Western Hemisphere’s largest narcotics market — is starting to legalize the drug.

“We continue to live practically with the same anti-drug policy we designed 30 years ago,” she said.

Colombia, the largest cocaine supplier to the U.S., considers decriminalizing

Sandí remembers the moment her community hit the breaking point. It was March 22, 2021, a Monday afternoon. Some children had been playing soccer nearby. At the edge of the crumbling asphalt pitch, they found a big black garbage bag.

Inside was a human head.

Taylor Castro, a 20-year-old man from Bella Vista, had been decapitated, apparently by a rival gang. “That’s where it all began,” Sandí said.

Bella Vista is just six miles from the Promenade of the Tourists, but the two places are a world apart. Families here bake in sweltering shacks with corrugated metal roofs. Children ride by on battered bikes, kicking up clouds of dust.

Sandí knew that drug abuse had been rampant for years — crack, marijuana, illicitly traded prescription pills such as clonazepam. Violence was hardly unusual. But a beheading?

Through her work leading a shrimp-peelers’ collective, Sandí had met Denia Murillo, the local representative of Costa Rica’s social welfare agency. Sandí fired off a text.

“I said, ‘Doña Denia, let’s do something, to help the children.’”

What followed was an outpouring of civic activity known as the Strategy. Murillo persuaded Costa Rica’s federal institutions to focus on rehabilitating Puntarenas’s poorest communities — organizing youth sporting events, theater clubs, parenting classes, citizen safety patrols. The U.S. Embassy pitched in through its program Sembremos Seguridad (“Let’s Sow Security”).

But the Costa Rican government provided few additional resources, Murillo said. The gang battles continued, with one young man after another felled by gunfire. The Strategy lost momentum.

Puntarenas was just one of many areas caught up in a much larger problem: Cocaine production in Colombia was exploding . Global cocaine output shot to a record high in 2021, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported Thursday. Costa Rican officials caught a glimpse of that boom by way of their cocaine seizures, which increased fivefold over a decade, reaching 49 U.S. tons in 2021.

Most of it was destined for other countries. Still, “it’s not at all unusual that traffic leads to consumption” at the local level, said Antoine Vella, a top data official at the U.N. agency. “We call it the spillover effect.”

Cocaine and crack have overtaken marijuana as the second-most-common category of substances for which Costa Rican addicts are receiving treatment, after alcohol. “Cocaine has become a protagonist,” said Helvethya Alfaro, a senior official of the government’s Institute of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction.

Officials note that Costa Rica is still less violent than many countries in the region. Its homicide rate hit 12.6 per 100,000 people last year. In Mexico, the rate is 25 per 100,000; in Honduras, it’s 36 . (The most recent U.S. figure is about 7 per 100,000). And although an increasing number of homicides in Costa Rica involve handguns, assault rifles are still rare.

“Paradise isn’t lost,” said Randall Zuñiga, the head of the Judicial Investigation Department, the rough equivalent of the FBI.

Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, a professor at George Washington University who studies violence in Latin America, warned against shrugging off the homicides as disputes between gangs: “That went very wrong for Mexico.” Mexican authorities initially underestimated the impact of an explosion of bloodshed 15 years ago and are struggling to regain control.

Chinchilla, the former president, warned that the rising violence could push a jittery public toward the populist policies of a Bukele, eroding the nation’s democratic heritage. A U.N.-sponsored study released in October found that two-thirds of Costa Ricans felt their country was somewhat or very unsafe.

President Rodrigo Chaves, who took office nearly a year ago, is promising to send “urgent legal reforms” on gun control, extradition, phone tapping and preventive detention to Congress next month. Security officials have been blasting judges for releasing gang suspects to house arrest, monitored by ankle bracelets, saying such practices belong to a more peaceful past.

“We didn’t have the reality that we have right now,” Deputy Security Minister Daniel Calderón said.

But the courts are not the only concern, Calderón said. Budget cuts in recent years have weakened the police force. Now, he said, a shift is underway “to concentrate not just on international drug trafficking but also on attacking these local gangs.”

In Bella Vista, that approach is evident. After the 21-year-old man was gunned down in January, police swarmed the neighborhood, a helicopter swooping in and an armored vehicle known as “the Beast” trundling along the potholed roads. “We called it a war,” Sandí said.

Even the police acknowledge that aggressive law enforcement alone will not solve the problem. Sandí says a lack of well-paying jobs and educational support is pushing young people into the vortex of illegal drugs. The coronavirus pandemic battered Costa Rica’s tourist economy, and unemployment still hovers around 12 percent. Public services in the country of 5 million have been strained by the arrival of waves of migrants fleeing an increasingly dictatorial government in neighboring Nicaragua.

In vulnerable areas, drugs have become an escape, Sandí said. “It’s as if you forget your problems a little bit. Nothing else matters — just using.”

She knows the feeling well. Years ago, she said, she walked out on an abusive husband and struggled to support her three children. She wound up leaving them with her mother while she worked as a nanny. She tried her first drink — half a bottle of beer — at a bar with an acquaintance. Soon she was downing six or seven. Next, it was marijuana.

“Then the white powder came. People called it cocaine,” she said. She ended up addicted to crack. “You felt like your head was going to explode, but it was so beautiful.” Above all, it was the thing that made the pain go away.

“I thought no one loved me. Not even my mother.”

She was saved by prayer and her Christian faith, she said. But for her neighborhood, in the grip of a drug crisis, salvation seems remote.

“Many of the young people here,” she said, “are lost.”

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Costa rica: tourists victims of armed robbery in national park.

news.co.cr REPORTED – Two Spanish tourists and three Costa Rican tourists (including a minor) suffered an armed robbery while they were enjoying a walk in one of the trails of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park this Thursday, August 9th at around 11:30 a.m.

The tourists were intercepted by men carrying knifes who took all their belongings, cell phones, binoculars, cash, backpacks, among other things.

The Public Police Force of Guanacaste with the assistance of the Touristic Police and workers of the National System of Areas of Conservation immediately patrolled the area and at around 4 p.m. they arrested two suspects and recovered most of the items stolen, as well as the knife used in the robbery, one of the suspects is a minor and both are of Costa Rican Nationality. Read Article

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Costa Rica: Tourists from U.S. Killed in Plane Crash

CNN.COM – A spokesperson for the US State Department confirmed the deaths of “multiple US citizens.” “We express our condolences to all those affected by this tragedy. We are in contact with Costa Rican aviation authorities and will continue to monitor the situation,” the spokesperson said. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, […]

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Costa Rica; Canadian Tourist Murdered, Multiple Stab Wounds

A Canadian teacher has been killed in what is believed to have been a violent robbery in Costa Rica. citynews.ca / Bruce McCallum, 58, who taught at Albert Campbell Collegiate in Scarborough, was found dead around 4:30 a.m. last Sunday in the southern Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo, Limón. He had suffered multiple stab wounds. […]

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Surfer from U.S. attacked by crocodile in Costa Rica

AZcentral.com reported an Arizona man has been reported in critical condition after a crocodile attacked him Friday morning at a Costa Rica beach. Jon Becker, 59, was identified as the survivor. Diario Extra said Becker was attacked by a crocodile at about 7:10 a.m. Friday while visiting a beach favored by surfers and ecotourists in […]

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Tourist from U.S. files rape charges in Costa Rica

ticotimes.net (Dece 31, 2015) reported a U.S. woman, age 27, filed a criminal complaint against a man who she says raped her last Sunday on a beach in the southern Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo, according to the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ). On Tuesday night, National Police officers in Limón province arrested a local resident […]

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Tourist from Canada dies at San Jose Costa Rica Int Airport

Believed to have passed away as result of heart attack insidecostarica.com reported January 13th, 2016 (ICR News) A 67-year-old Canadian tourist whose identity was identity was not immediately released, died shortly before 4:30 p.m. inside Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) on Tuesday. Read Article

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Costa Rica: Investigation of missing U.S. expat broadens, may have been real estate related

amcostaricaarchives.com reported judicial investigators searched a lawyer’s office in Ciudad Quesada Thursday, and this appears to be related with an effort to find a missing U.S. expat. The Judicial Investigating Organization issued a brief statement Thursday afternoon. It said that agents entered and searched a lawyer’s office in an investigation of false paperwork. The paperwork […]

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U.S. expat still missing Costa Rica

amcostaricaarchives.com reported Investigators have said nothing official about missing U.S. citizen Brian Lynn Hogue since the initial report of his disappearance in mid-June. However, it appears that investigators consider the crime to be linked to property that the resident of Pococí owns. A check of the Registro Público shows that the courts have put multiple […]

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Expat from U.S. arrested in Costa Rica for illegal gold mining in national park

news.co.cr reported a security task force convened by the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP) in Costa Rica arrested a citizen from the United States who will be charged with crimes against nature. According to an official press release by the MSP, the U.S. expat was apprehended along with a citizen of Costa Rica; […]

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Tourist from France dies in boating accident in Costa Rica

costaricagoldcountry.com reported a French tourist identified by Costa Rican officials as Aubers Nicolle, 49, died Sunday when the fishing boat he was on crashed into rocks near the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica’s southern Pacific. The man was traveling with four other people, including his wife, Lidie Nicolle, 48 and son, Antane Nicolle, 15. The […]

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Tourists who died in a fatal accident had been in the country for five days

"The car in which the victims were traveling made a U-turn and at that moment was hit by the pick- up,"says witness

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Find out who the new councilors of your canton are starting this may 1st, bill to dollarize costa rica before congress, new england patriots plane landed in costa rica, central bank not exactly sure what’s causing the dollar to go up, but assures no need for alarm, 4 parents in the us reported possible abduction of their children to costa rica, may 1, labor day, is a public holiday in costa rica, dollar exchange.

01 May 2024 - At The Banks - Source: BCCR

QCOSTARICA – The three American tourists who died Monday afternoon in a traffic accident in, Puntarenas, had been in Costa Rica only five days.

As confirmed by the Immigration press office, the man Roland Terrell, 58, Teri Terrell, 56, and Rachel Abadie, 50, entered Costa Rican, by air, on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.

All three were frequent visitors to Costa Rica. Immigration records show that Roland and Terri were in the country in February 2013 and Roland traveled alone in April 2019. Rachel, for her part, had visited Costa Rica in March 2014 and in April and November 2018.

Roland and Terri were married with two children, lived in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and owned a business called Terrell and Associates, LLC.

The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) confirmed that they were in the country for tourism.

The preliminary report by the OIJ indicates that the events occurred around 2 pm Monday, January 24, when the now deceased were traveling as companions in a vehicle in the Quepos-Dominical direction, on the Ruta 34, popularly known as the Costanera Sur (South Coastal).

Read more: Three American tourists died in traffic accident

For reasons that are being investigated, it seems that the driver of the vehicle that the victims were traveling in would have made a “U-turn” and at that moment they were collided by an oncoming vehicle. A dashcam video on the oncoming vehicle, a Dodge Ram pick up, recorded the moment of the collision.

“The now deceased were traveling as companions in a vehicle in the Quepos-Dominical direction and, for reasons that are being investigated, it seems that the driver would have made a U-turn and at that moment they were collided by another vehicle (a Dodge Ram pick-up) . Both the female and the male died at the site and the bodies were transferred to the Judicial Morgue for the respective autopsy to be performed. Two other people who were traveling in the vehicle were taken to the local medical center,” explained the Judicial Police through its press office.

The passengers of the pick-up involved in the collision were not injured.

The OIJ continues to investigate.

Adriano Castro Alvarado, who was on his way from Pérez Zeledón to Quepos with his family when the crash occurred, told La Nación that the car in which the victims were traveling made a U-turn and at that moment was hit by the pick- up. “The vehicle was pushed several meters and was on the other side of the street, overturned, several bodies could be seen partially out of the car,” he said.

Castro explained that he did not stop at the scene since when traveling with his relatives he preferred to continue the road, but he believes that the lack of knowledge that foreigners have of the Costa Rican roads and traffic could have influenced the tragedy.

This is the second mortal traffic accident in the month involving tourists. On January 7 , two American tourists and a Swiss died in a collision in Miramar de Montes de Oro, Puntarenas. A Costa Rican, the driver of the tourism van was also killed in the crash, when their minibus collided with a trailer, went off the road, and, later, the heavy truck (which was carrying a load of sugar) fell on the bus. A fifth passenger, an American tourist, survived .

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American tourist killed by tiger shark off Costa Rica

December 4, 2017 / 11:17 AM EST / CBS News

An American woman was mauled to death by a female tiger shark while scuba diving off the coast of Costa Rica, the country's  Ministry of Environment and Energy announced. 

The deadly attack took place on Thursday in the waters of Cocos Island National Park.

According to  The Washington Post , friends identified the victim as 49-year-old Rohina Bhandari, a director of a private equity firm in New York City. In a written statement, Costa Rica's Ministry of Environment and Energy said several doctors confirmed the death of the American tourist by only using Bhandari's last name.

Bhandari was a senior director at WL Ross & Co. LLC, according to her LinkedIn page. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bhandari's dive guide sustained a serious wound to one of his extremities in the attack, the ministry said. At this time, doctors say he remains conscious with stable vital signs. 

Several people posted condolences on social media after learning of Bhandari's passing. 

Within a tweet, British diplomat John Benjamin described Bhandari as someone who was "always generous and gregarious." 

Desperately sad to hear of the tragic, untimely passing of my dear friend Rohina Bhandari. Always generous & gregarious, she was a mainstay of my social life in NYC a decade ago, visited us in Chile and so kindly lent us her apartment in NYC in July this year. RIP sweet Rohina. pic.twitter.com/nAyV8B8lum — Jon Benjamin (@JonBenjamin19) December 3, 2017

“Every mortal will taste DEATH, but only some will taste LIFE.” My dear friend Rohina Bhandari ,… https://t.co/gwlv4xhYVU — Debra Anderson (@Funkydivanyc) December 3, 2017

The island is well-known for attracting divers. There are about 14 species of sharks — including whale sharks, hammerhead sharks and tiger sharks — inhabiting the area, according to the agency's statement. 

Authorities say the attack was an isolated incident — it was the first of its kind for the island-area.     

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