Update: Saturday, Feb. 20, 1:30 p.m.
Nicaraguan police presented a handcuffed Michael Adrián Salmerón Silva — the principal suspect in the killing of five members of a family in Guanacaste, Costa Rica — at a Saturday news conference. Police said the suspect was captured at a family member’s home in the municipality of San Francisco Libre, some 75 kilometers north of the capital, Managua, on Friday.
Police said family members were cooperative during the capture.
Costa Rican police had previously reported that Salmerón was captured in a different rural community some 25 km further north.
Nicaragua’s constitution prohibits the country from expediting nationals, which means Salmerón will likely not be brought to trial in Costa Rica. Nicaraguan National Police subdirector Francisco Díaz said Saturday that authorities were in communication with their counterparts in Costa Rica to get access to the case file, presumably so Nicaragua can consider whether to prosecute Salmerón in Nicaragua.
Updated at 9:30 p.m. Friday
Costa Rican and Nicaraguan authorities reported Friday evening that the main suspect in the slaying of five members of a U.S.-Costa Rican family has been captured in Nicaragua.
Costa Rica’s Public Security Minister, Gustavo Mata, wrote on his Twitter account that the suspect, identified previously as Adrián Salmerón Silva, a Nicaraguan, was captured in a rural community in Nicaragua, north of the capital, Managua.
Later, the Public Security Ministry posted to its Twitter account a news release from Nicaragua’s National Police confirming that Salmerón, 24, had been detained and requesting information from Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) about the investigation.
Salmerón was purportedly the boyfriend of Jessica Durán, 38, of Costa Rica. Durán was killed along with her U.S. husband, Dirk Beauchamp, 56, and three of their children, ages 12, 8 and 6, on Valentine’s Day in their home in Matapalo, Guanacaste.
Two other children, a 7-month-old and a 4-year-old, survived the massacre. The daily La Nación reported that the infant was released from a Nicoya hospital on Friday while the 4-year-old remains at the National Children’s Hospital in San José. The daily has reported that the girls’ maternal grandmother is seeking custody of them.
Since Nicaragua does not have an extradition treaty with Costa Rica, it wasn’t immediately clear how or where Salmerón might be prosecuted.
