Responding to pressure from residents in Costa Rica's Northern Zone, who say they increasingly have become targets for assaults and robberies, the Public Security Ministry announced Thursday that it had conducted the first of several sweeps of the area in an effort to catch the bad guys.
Residents and business owners in Nuevo Arenal, a town in north-central Costa Rica near the Arenal Volcano, are demanding a greater police presence after a spike in crime in recent months.
On Tuesday, the Judicial Investigation Police told The Tico Times that the U.S. tourist had not returned to La Fortuna to identify the four suspects, and without further evidence, police released the suspects later that day.
A spokeswoman for the Judicial Investigation Police confirmed to The Tico Times that security cameras and witnesses identified four suspects who were at a La Fortuna bar, El Establo, the last place where the victim was seen before the alleged rape took place early Sunday morning.
A 19-year-old woman from the U.S. state of Wisconsin was allegedly raped by seven men in La Fortuna de San Carlos, in the Northern Zone of the country, according to Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).
Three armed assailants allegedly killed U.S. retiree Kurt Heigis, 64, Sunday night in San Ramón, a coffee town 36 kilometers northwest of San José. Police are investigating.
