Family, Friends Mourn Death of Hotel Owner

Friends and family members are grieving the untimely death of Patrick William Dunn, 68, a Costa Rican citizen originally from the United States who was well known in the expatriate and business community here.

Dunn was the owner, along with his wife, Elvia Jahara Jarquín, of the Posada Amon hotel in the capital, and was the former owner of many other well-known locales such as Hotel Dunn Inn, Happy Days, New York Bar and Lucky’s Piano Bar, all in San José.

Dunn, who had lived in Costa Rica for 25 years and renounced his U.S. citizenship, was stabbed to death in Manta, Ecuador, in the early morning May 18 during a burglary of the bar he owned and where he lived, called Nashville South.

Dunn had been living in Ecuador for three years and had just received his residency a month before, his daughter Jennifer Dunn, who lives in Costa Rica, told The Tico Times by phone this week.

Dunn’s body was returned to Costa Rica Tuesday, and a funeral was held Wednesday day at the TibásCemetery, north of San Jose, where he was buried.

Dunn’s daughter said her father “was very happy, and had a young spirit. He was almost 70, but seemed like a child.”

“He was a friend to anybody who needed one,” Jennifer said. “And in his time, he was quite the hero.”

In 1999, Dunn rescued his elderly neighbor from a house fire, receiving severe burns in the process that kept Dunn bedridden for a year.

Jerry Ruhlow, The Tico Times’ fishing columnist and a longtime friend of Dunn’s, described Dunn as “gregarious and outgoing.”

“He was one of the most liked people I’ve met in Costa Rica, and anywhere else,” Ruhlow said. “He was a very fine person and always willing to help anybody.”

Police are investigating the homicide and searching for three suspects who allegedly took cash, liquor and personal documents from Dunn’s home, the Ecuadorian newspaper El Mercurio reported on its Web site.