By Wendy Anders

Yesterday, police captured a 21-year old Costa Rican man at his home in Hone Creek, Limón in connection with the murder of a hotel owner in late October this year, reported the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).

A 50-year-old French woman by the last name of Claire was found lying dead and bound on the ground at her boutique hotel south of Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica’s Caribbean Limón province on October 27, continued the OIJ’s Bribri regional office.

The Frenchwoman has also been named as Estelle Marie Clare Jeanne and Estelle Marie-Claire Jeanne in other media reports. She was found by an employee when he arrived for work early October 27, said the OIJ.

According to police reports, the woman took over the Pachamama Jungle River Lodge in Punta Uva, Cahuita (Limón) three years ago after her husband, also French, returned to France. According to immigration authorities she had been living in Costa Rica as an investor-resident for at least six years prior to her murder.

The OIJ’s investigation concluded that at least three men had assaulted the Pachamama hotel, and when the woman tried to intervene, she was attacked and asphyxiated with a cloth.

The day Claire was found, the house where employees said she usually slept was in disarray, said the OIJ, and it was presumed some valuable items were missing including a laptop computer, a tablet, and a cell phone.

Hotel employees said the woman lived alone and that when they left work the previous evening, there were no guests staying at the hotel, which is not unusual for the rainy low-season month of October when tourism in Costa Rica is at its lowest.

The Pachamama Hotel is located eight kilometers south of Puerto Viejo near the entrance to the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge, and has operated for about 10 years, said a report in La Nación, Costa Rica’s main Spanish daily newspaper.

According to the hotel website, Pachamama offers three villas and two bungalows for a maximum capacity of 18 people.

Earlier this year the South Caribbean Chamber of Tourism, the Ministry of Security, and the Municipality of Talamanca announced the installation of a modern surveillance system with cameras to aid in monitoring and deterring frequent robberies of tourists, continued La Nación’s report. Unfortunately the system didn’t deter this horrific crime from occurring.

Murillo was found with several doses of drugs ready for sale when he was arrested at his home yesterday.

Police continue to investigate the case to identify and capture the remaining suspects, said the OIJ.