Three of Robert Stewart's acquaintences told police that the missing man had been acting strangely in recent days, had stopped taking his prescription medication and voiced his intention to commit suicide.
Nearly nine months after a panel of Costa Rican judges found Ann Patton guilty of killing her wealthy U.S. husband in 2010 and sentenced her to 22 years in prison, she suddenly found herself a free woman on Thursday.
Costa Rica had a pretty “pura vida” year in 2014 when it came to crime. Compared to unidentified helicopters, $6 billion money laundering schemes and the break up of an organ trafficking ring in 2013, 2014 was a more pedestrian year. But there were still a handful of standout crime stories this year.
Last Wednesday, Patton's boyfriend, 40-year-old New York State native Greg Fischer, was found dead in his Escazú apartment southwest of San José, from an apparent heart attack or asthma attack, his brother Brian stated in a Facebook post.
Budovsky is accused of being the "principal founder" of the Costa Rica-based scheme, which is accused of laundering more than $6 billion for criminals between 2006 and 2013.
Since 27-year-old Alaskan Cody Dial went missing after hiking in Costa Rica's wild Corcovado National Park, his father has traversed the park, repelled down waterfalls and trekked illegal gold mining trails in an attempt to find him. But even after weeks with no sign of his son, Roman Dial, a legendary Alaskan outdoorsman, is not ready to give up.
San José's Juan Santamaría International Airport is often busy, but it became a zoo on Tuesday when police discovered 170 live animals in the luggage of a passenger headed to Panama.
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.
A 56-year-old U.S. woman and two Costa Ricans were arrested during a raid of a hydroponic marijuana laboratory in Coyol, Alajuela, the Public Security Ministry reported on Monday.
Representatives from the U.S. Embassy are now in Puerto Jiménez, near the park's eastern entrance, to take over the search, accompanied by Dial's father, Roman Dial, a National Geographic explorer and well-known adventure sportsman.
