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Church in Belen de Nosarita, Nicoya
The police are searching for the only suspect, last name Castro, about 40 years old, who witnesses say fled into the mountains, an area he knows well.
The two were a couple although they were not married. A witness who is a minor said that Castro attacked Hernandez with a kitchen knife, according to Police Chief Adriana Cordoba, and the woman received a blow to the face, her neck and abdomen from the knife.
The couple have two children, a 16-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. Cordoba assured that the children are receiving special attention from the court, which has an office that provides necessary medical and psychological support to victims of crime.
Neighbor Mayela Lopez Esquivel said she arrived home when they were removing the body and heard the woman’s two children crying and the daughter lamenting that her mother had been killed.
“I know she suffered agressions, that he hit her,” Lopez related. “This is really tough for all of us. She was a great person.”
In late December, Hernandez requested police protection against Castro and had a restraining order. However, she later allowed Castro to return home, thus invalidating the cautionary measures.
Cordoba hopes this case will send a message to women regarding the danger of remaining in situations of domestic violence. “Don’t accept the aggressors in the house,” she warned. “They ask forgiveness, return home and later things like this happen. The men lie and they don’t change. One in a thousand changes.”
The police are performing roadblocks in hopes of capturing Castro. If captured, Cordoba believes the suspect is likely to receive a firm sentence since there were witnesses to the crime.
The penal law for Violence Against Women in Costa Rica stipulates that cases of femicide carry a penalty of 20 to 35 years in prison for murdering a woman with whom one is married or has a domestic union.
Article by Voice of Guanacaste
