A 64-year-old French woman was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head inside her home in Cabo Velas, Santa Cruz, on Friday morning, according to the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ). The OIJ received the report at 8:04 a.m., after a worker employed by the woman discovered her body inside the house in the area known as Lomas de Matapalo. The agency identified the victim by the name Bourgeus.
Agents from the OIJ’s Santa Cruz regional office carried out a preliminary examination at the scene and determined that she had a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities are treating the case as a possible homicide. The body was sent to the Judicial Morgue, where an autopsy will establish the cause and manner of death. As of Sunday morning, the OIJ had not publicly reported any arrests, named a suspect or described a possible motive.
Cabo Velas is a coastal area on Guanacaste’s northern Pacific coast that takes in the beach communities of Flamingo, Potrero, Brasilito and Conchal, along with residential developments and vacation rentals in the hills behind them. The case is the second death of a foreigner under investigation in the district in recent months. In August, the OIJ treated the death of a 75-year-old U.S. citizen found in Cabo Velas as an apparent homicide possibly linked to a robbery at the property. In June, a German resident was found stabbed to death on a farm elsewhere in the canton of Santa Cruz.
Elsewhere in Guanacaste, a 22-year-old woman suspected in the killing of an American businessman in Playas del Coco was ordered held in pretrial detention for one year in October while prosecutors build their case. The OIJ asks anyone with information about the case to contact its confidential line at 800-8000-645. The investigation is ongoing.
