Additional Clarifying Details on the Murder of Jeffery A. Kline in Costa Rica

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Some new sources of information are emerging who are able to provide amazing details on the murder of American lawyer Jeffery A. Kline in Costa Rica at the hands of the serial killers William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese. I now know when, where, and how William Dathan Holbert met Jeffery A. Kline in Costa Rica. I also know that both Holbert and Kline were living under the same roof, and that Holbert had access to Kline's room and personal documents and information - including bank account records. Most of the new information contained in this article comes from one source, who I consider to be absolutely trustworthy, and whose name I am going to protect and withhold. Therefore, throughout this article I will just identify him as "the source". What's not so clear at this point are the exact dates - his memory is a little fuzzy on those details from almost four years ago. I know from other sources of information most of this activity occurred in the May - June time frame of 2006. The source has also directed me to ways to obtain some specific details on some of the dates of these events for clarification (still working on that.) But for right now I'm going to leave the exact dates out for later confirmation. In any case, this source of information was with William Dathan Holbert at the Best Western hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica when they both met Jeffery Kline for the first time. The source owned a house in the Puerto Uva area of Costa Rica, near the Atlantic coast, where both Holbert and Kline rented rooms simultaneously. And, the source was probably one of the last people to see Jeffery A. Kline alive, before William Dathan Holbert killed him. (more)

Living in Puerto Viejo Area: In the spring of 2006, William Dathan Holbert was already living in the area of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. When he first got there he stayed in a hotel for a week. Then he rented a cabin down by the beach for another week. Holbert eventually met and became friends with the primary "source" of information in this article. The source had built a new home in the area of Punta Uva, Costa Rica. He built it with several suites upstairs which he planned to rent out to paying guests. Each of the suites was "lockable" meaning that the guest could close and lock the door and the contents of the room should be safe. One of his very first customers was William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese, who moved in to one of the upstairs bedrooms. Holbert and the source became friends. They would hang out together frequently, drinking mostly.

Scooter Rental Business: The source owned a relatively large scooter rental business in the area, and he had about 20 bikes in all. On one particular weekend he had to drive to the capital of San Jose, Costa Rica, to pick up some new bikes. He had just purchased four new Kawasaki "Wind" 125 cc motorcycles which he intended to use for his business. The source owned a small pickup truck and he could haul just two of the motorcycles at a time. Holbert accompanied the source on the road trip to San Jose to pick up the motorcycles. While they were there, they spent the night at a hotel.

Chance Meeting In The Hotel Bar: In San Jose Holbert and the source stayed at the Best Western Irazú hotel. After they got checked in they both went to hotel bar and started drinking. In the bar, they met Jeffery A. Kline. The source described Kline to a "T". Kline gave one of his business cards to both Holbert and the source. Kline told them that he had "just arrived" in San Jose. Kline said he had "just gotten off of the plane" and that he was "looking to make a fresh start." The three of them talked and drank for quite some time. Eventually Holbert convinced Kline that he should come with them back to Puerto Viejo. The source agreed to rent one of the other available upstairs bedrooms to Kline for $100 per week. The next day, the three of them drove back to Puerto Viejo together in the truck with the two new motorcycles.

Getting Settled In: The room where Kline was going to rent was furnished, but it was brand new and no one had ever stayed there before. As Kline was putting his suitcases into the room, the source went to get some sheets for the bed. The source came back into the room and started to make the bed, and when he lifted up the mattress he was startled to see about $10,000 in cash under the mattress. The source told me "Jeff hadn't even been in the room for more than ten minutes at that point, so apparently the first thing he did was to stick that cash under the mattress. I told him it was a foolish thing to do, to leave his cash laying around like that. Jeff said he would have to open a bank account and I offered to help him with that, with letters of reference or whatnot." Later Jeff told the source that he was bringing down more than $100,000 dollars in a wire transfer from the United States.

Renting The New Motorcycle: The very next day Jeff Kline agreed to rent one of the brand new Kawasaki Wind motorcycles from the source. He gave the source a total of $1,000 in cash. Of that, $400 was for one month's rent on the room and $600 was to rent the motorcycle. Jeff Kline then rode that motorcycle down to the beach at Punta Uva where he met up with Bill Holbert, and the two of them started drinking. Later in the afternoon the source went down to the same bar for awhile, but he left and went home to bed by about 7:30 pm that night. Later, around midnight, he heard a police and ambulance siren and saw the flashing lights. It turns out that Jeff Kline was trying to drive home drunk, and he drove the brand new motorcycle off of a bridge and into the river.

Hauled Out With A Strap: At that point in time Jeff Kline weighed about 400 pounds or so. Apparently when he crashed into the river he was too drunk to get up and out of the water, and the people who were there could not lift him out either. Eventually they put a strap around him and used a tow truck to haul him up and out of the river to the road. He was scratched up, a little battered and bruised from his experience, but otherwise unhurt. He had been bitten up pretty badly by the mosquitoes because when he first went into the river no one saw him. He ended up spending about two hours in the water before someone came to (literally) haul him out. The motorcycle stayed in the river. The source heard the whole story from Jeff when he got back to the house, but Jeff had lost his room key, which was on the key chain that went into the river with the motorcycle.

Retrieving The Waterlogged Scooter: The next day the source went with some men to recover the motorcycle from the river. They found some skid marks and one of Jeff's sandals by the side of the road so they knew where he had gone in. One of the men went into the water and was able to get a rope around the bike, and they hauled it out. Besides the water, it was relatively undamaged. Later back at the house Kline agreed to buy the motorcycle for an additional $2,000 dollars. The source helped Kline to get the bike running again, and at that point it became Kline's property.

Theft of Cash From The Room: One morning Kline was downstairs and upset because someone had supposedly "broken in" to his room and stolen his remaining cash. Bill said "let's have a look" and they went upstairs together. There were no signs of physical forced entry, and Kline lamented the loss of his money. The source said they had never had any kind of a break-in before. The source estimates that since Kline started out with about $10,000 in cash, and since he had already paid him a total of $3,000 dollars, and considering other money spent on drinking, the total loss was about $6,000 or so. The source now assumes Bill Holbert had obtained a copy of the key to Kline's room and used that to get in there to steal the money. The source admits that he had told Bill Holbert the story about when he found the $10,000 in cash on the day Kline first moved in. Kline was upset and distraught over the loss of this money. Shortly after this incident, within days, Holbert moved out of this house and rented the house down by Playa Negra, where Kline's body would eventually be found. I also suspect that when he was in Kline's room, Holbert took advantage of the access to go through his personal belongings and paperwork. That's when he probably learned that Kline had recently transferred $107,000 from the United States to his bank account in Costa Rica.

Dinner Invitation: The source had to make another trip to San Jose, this time to buy replacement tires for his scooter rental business. Holbert invited the source and Kline over for dinner, but the source had to decline and Kline went by himself. When the source returned from this trip to San Jose, Kline was gone and Holbert was riding Kline's motorcycle. The source asked Holbert what had happened to Kline. Holbert said that Kline had gone crazy and that he started hallucinating. Holbert said he was forced to call and ambulance and that Kline had been taken back to San Jose to a substance abuse treatment facility. By this point Kline had reportedly lost almost 100 pounds in about a month because all was doing was drinking and snorting cocaine. Therefore, the story about Kline flipping out and going crazy made sense to the source. The source never saw or heard of Jeff again. We now know that Holbert killed Kline and buried his body under the house he was renting in the Playa Negra area. I suspect Holbert was able to obtain an ATM card and a pin from Kline, which gave him access to the newly arrived $107,000 in cash.

Hello, Duckworth Family: And that's about the time Allan and Stacie Duckworth showed up on the scene. They had been in the area before. They purchased a parcel of land for $25,000 dollars and spent another $25,000 to build a bar. It was going to be called "Pato's Palace" but the bar never actually opened. Before too long all four of them, William Dathan Holbert, Laura Michelle Reese, and Allan and Stacie Duckworth all departed Puerto Viejo and moved to Jaco, Costa Rica, on the other side of the country.

Other Details: The source said Holbert took off his shirt at one point and he saw all of the tattoos - a swastika, something about "White Supremacy Rules" and other such stuff. The source told Holbert that "you're in the wrong place, here in Costa Rica, which is full of blacks." The source said that he "knew he was weird." Holbert told him that his father was a preacher who used to beat him all the time. At this time Holbert had a shaved head. In San Jose he was buying and selling used cars to make money. The source said "I'm just gob smacked, and so sad for Jeff..."

I Now Have No Doubts Whatsoever: Holbert killed Kline in order to get the $107,000 dollars in cash. He buried the body under the house he was renting in Playa Negra. He used the left over cement from the construction project of the Duckworth's bar to pour the slab over Kline's body. Then, armed with the new cash stolen from Kline, they quickly departed the area and left for Jaco, Costa Rica. While there, I think he killed several more people.

A Conviction in Costa Rica: I personally think Holbert killed several people in Costa Rica. It is critically important that he be tried and convicted for at least one. He has already confessed to having killed five people in the Republic of Panama, and for that he will probably be sentenced to serve at least 50 years in prison. If he manages to survive that, if there is a murder conviction pending against him in Costa Rica, when Panama is done with him they will just toss his across the border, where he will die in prison. A conviction for murder in another country is very important because it means he will never walk this earth again as a free man - no matter what happens.

Copyright 2010 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.