Costa Rican authorities find body of missing U.S. citizen

Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) confirmed to The Tico Times that they have located and positively identified the body of Charlie Hughes, a U.S. citizen who went missing in Costa Rica in August.

In a statement to The Tico Times, OIJ said authorities found “bone remains” on Sept. 16 near Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas, about 5 km from where Hughes had last been seen.

Over the last two months, Costa Rican forensic authorities identified the remains. They have been transported back to the United States.

OIJ did not provide any further information about the case at this time.

Hughes, 62, disappeared on Aug. 3 in Puerto Jiménez.

Hughes’s family told Fox 13 News that Charlie had travelled to Costa Rica “to visit a man he’d recently met on his first trip to the Central American country.”