Formal Complaint Filed in Costa Rica Against Holbert & Reese in Murder of Jeffery A. Kline (And Others)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - On Tuesday, 31 August 2010, I filed an eleven-page formal complaint in San Jose, Costa Rica, before the Fiscalia Adjunta Contra El Crimen Organizado (Deputy Prosecutor Against Organized Crime), against William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese for the homicide of Jeffery Arlan Kline (and others). The situation on the ground in Costa Rica was basically the same as it was here in Panama in early July 2010. Their Organization of Judicial Investigation (OIJ) had some information in the case however none of that information had been passed to the prosecutors of the Public Ministry. In Panama in late June and early July, the DIJ had the missing persons reports for Cher Hughes and Bo Icelar, however they never passed any information to the prosecutors of the Public Ministry, and a formal investigation wasn't opened until I met with the Assistant to the Attorney General Neftali Jaen and brought it to his attention on 7 July 2010. So, the situation in Costa Rica is basically an exact repeat of what happened in Panama. As of Tuesday, 31 August 2010, the prosecutors of the Public Ministry in San Jose, Costa Rica have now formally and officially opened an investigation into the murder of American lawyer Jeffery A. Kline (and others), with William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese as the primary suspects, based on my complaint and the information I have gathered as a result of my investigation into these events. (more)

A Scheduled Meeting: Since I had to travel up to San Jose, Costa Rica, in order to make this complaint I first coordinated with the office of the Public Ministry there to let them know I was coming, and why. I sent an email on Wednesday, 25 August 2010 with an outline of the information I wanted to present. I requested an appointment to meet with their prosecutors. The next day, on Thursday, 26 August 2010, I received a reply from Laura Monge Cantero the Fiscala Coordinadora (Coordinating Prosecutor) of the Oficina de Asesoría Técnica y Relaciones Internacionales (Office of Technical Assistance and International Relations) of the Fiscalía General de la República (General Prosecutor of the Republic) of Costa Rica. She gave me directions to her office and building, and we went on to exchange emails to schedule a firm appointment for Tuesday morning, 31 August 2010 at 9:00 am.

Road Trip - Via Bocas and Puerto Viejo: On Sunday, 29 August 2010, I flew from Panama City to Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro. From there I caught the water taxi to Almirante, and from there a taxi to Guabito and the border crossing at the bridge over the Sixaola river. This was the first time I had crossed into Costa Rica via this famous bridge - called by some the "most photographed bridge in the world." Most of the traffic is people walking back and forth on foot, however as I was going across as if on cue an 18-wheeler slowly made it's way past the pedestrians. We had to cluster on this old, rusted metal grate that looked like it was going to collapse at any minute. Anyway, interesting and "picturesque" to say the least. Once on the Costa Rican side of the border I stamped through immigration and caught another ride to Puerto Viejo, along the Caribbean coast. I went this route because it was the fastest and cheapest way of getting to Puerto Viejo - the place where Holbert and Reese killed Kline (and others). I needed to go there first to walk the ground myself, get a feel for the place, meet with some people, and figure a few things out.

Special Thanks to Manuel Pinto: Before I go into all of the details about my time on the ground in Puerto Viejo, I want to put a great big Gracias! right up front to Manuel Pinto, the owner of the Caribe Sur Real Estate Office in Puerto Viejo. When it comes to dealing with the life and times of foreign expatriates in remote locations overseas, real estate agents are kinda like hairdressers - they usually know what's going on and they have great information about many different areas of expertise. In Manuel's case, he was involved either directly or indirectly in almost all of the pertinent real estate transactions related to the investigation of William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese, and the murder of Jeffery A. Kline in Puerto Viejo in 2006. He's fluent in English, Spanish, French, and probably some other languages as well. He's been there for a very long times, knows everyone and more importantly, who's who. Manuel steered me in the right direction, helped me get past a couple of hurdles that would have otherwise been insurmountable, warned me about a few other not so savory characters in the area, and gave me a great feel for the entire "vibe" of Puerto Viejo. So, if you ever find yourself looking to buy any real estate in the area of Puerto Viejo - call Manuel Pinto (and tell him I said "hi.") Thanks again, Manuel. I couldn't have done it without you...

"A tiny Rasta Beach Community" That's how Puerto Viejo was described to me - as a "tiny Rasta beach community - which means we smoke a lot of pot..." The Rastafari Movement dominates the culture of the area and the entire town has a kind of really laid back (stoned?) vibe. I went out for a few beers that night and was surprised to see a couple of tourist chicks buy a handful of joints from guys in the bar. OK, seeing tourist chicks buy joints wasn't the surprising part. However I broke out laughing when they sparked them up and smoked them all, right there in the bar. Basically, if you like to smoke pot then Puerto Viejo is your Mecca. The girls got high, got drunk, got the munchies, and then went looking for "chicken strips." After dark every place I went there were a steady stream of offers to buy coke and weed, on every corner and in every bar. There was one part of town I was warned to stay away from, where the locals do crack, because it's more dangerous, relatively speaking. Everyone has a nickname, and on several occasions I was told to ask for a specific person, and to tell them it was OK to talk to me because so-and-so sent me. Puerto Viejo is a very small little town with a tiny full time population, which sees a steady stream of short term visitors, tourists, snow birds, and vacationers - who spend most of their time altered in one way or another. In short, perfect hunting grounds for the serial killers Holbert and Reese.

Holbert Arrives in Costa Rica: If you will remember, William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese ran away from the United States, stole a UHaul truck, drove it to West Palm Beach in Florida, and boarded a cruise ship. From there, the debarked the ship when it made it's port of call in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, and they stayed in Costa Rica illegally. Shortly thereafter, Holbert made his way South down the coast to the area of Puerto Viejo where he rented a motorcycle from the gringo owner of a "scooter rental" place. That's where and when he met one of my primary sources of information (whose name and other details I'm still protecting.) Holbert befriended the owner of the scooter rental place, and eventually rented a room from him. Holbert and Reese moved in, and they began their new lives as residents of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.

A Small Rented Bedroom: I was able to visit and walk through the place where Holbert and Reese were living in February and March of 2006. In fact that house is located at GPS coordinates 093814.5N 0824259.3W - but when this overhead satellite image was taken for Google Earth, the house had not yet been built. The house is tucked away, off of the beach and back into the jungle. There was a troop of Howler Monkeys in the treetops above us, who were either announcing or protesting our arrival. The current owner of the property is a wonderfully gracious French man who gave me full access to the property, who allowed me to take all of the photos I wanted, and to explore the layout. Remember, this is the house where Holbert and Reese were living first, and where the American lawyer Jeffery A. Kline later moved in to the adjoining bedroom.

Serial Killers for Neighbors: Holbert and Reese were living in one of these two rooms, and Jeffery A. Kline was living in the other one. This was after Holbert and the "scooter source" went to San Juan to pick up the motorcycles, met Kline in the "La Cantina" bar of the Best Western Irazu hotel, and brought him back to Puerto Viejo. This is also where Jeffery A. Kline was living when Holbert killed him and buried his body under the house he was renting, located just down down the road a few kilometers away in Playa Negra.

Connecting Bedrooms: William Dathan Holbert gained access to Jeff Kline's room by going through the bathrooms - which connect the two - in order to steal about $6,000 in cash that Kline had on him at the time. There were no signs of breaking and entering, and it's obvious that Holbert simply went into Kline's room through these connecting bathrooms to steal the money. The "scooter source" had already mentioned to his "friend" Holbert that Kline was loaded down with cash, and that he was expecting a wire transfer of $107,040 from a bank in the United States. When Holbert stole this initial $6,000 dollars, he used this money to rent the house down the road at Playa Negra. He moved out just a few days after pulling off the robbery.

Come For Dinner: The "scooter source" had to go to San Juan to buy some tires for his motorcycles. Holbert invited Jeff Kline to his house in Playa Negra that same night, supposedly to come over for dinner. Holbert supposedly invited the "scooter source" to come over as well, probably knowing about his preexisting plans to go to San Jose, and as predicted the source declined and Kline went alone. The last time the source saw Kline was before he departed for this road trip to San Jose, and he knew that Kline was planning on going over to Holbert's house in Playa Negra that night for dinner.

Additional "Colorful" Details: When the source returned from San Jose and went to his house, he expected to find Kline there. However he was surprised to find a big, fat pile of human excrement in the bed where Kline had been living. There was a $100 dollar bill tucked in there, along with a note (supposedly from Kline) saying that he was leaving. The source went looking for Kline, and he started by contacting Holbert. He found Holbert driving Kline's motorcycle (the one he road off of the bridge and into the river.) The source asked Holbert what had happened to Kline, and Holbert told him a long story about how Kline had supposedly freaked out, gone nuts, and started hallucinating from all of the drugs he was doing. Holbert told the source he had to call an ambulance and to send Kline back to San Jose to a drug rehabilitation center. Of course we now know that Holbert actually killed Kline and buried his body under the house he was renting in Playa Negra. And, since Holbert knew that Kline was dead and that the source was in San Jose buying motorcycle tires, he apparently went back to the house and took a dump in Kline's bed to reinforce the whole "he went crazy" story. The stories about Jeffery Kline's relatively short stay in Puerto Viejo are well known. No one knows his name, but they all know about the "really fat lawyer" who drove the motorcycle into the river, how he had to be hauled out with a strap because he was too fat to crawl out by himself, and how he supposedly went nuts and freaked out because of too much drugs. I had not heard this "taking a dump in the bed" story before I went to Puerto Viejo and asked around - but it fits perfectly.

Big Score - Time To Move On: One of Holbert's patterns of conduct is that he moves when he makes a big score. Getting access to Kline's bank account with a fresh $107,040 in cash was huge. Within a couple of weeks, after he covered over Kline's body with a layer of cement, Holbert and Reese packed up and moved to Jaco, Costa Rica (the first time.) They would do exactly the same thing about one year later, in April 2007, and move to Jaco with Allan and Stacie Duckworth. It now seems like Holbert and Reese would bounce around from Puerto Viejo, to Jaco, to San Jose, and other locations in Costa Rica. Their standard operating practice was to sign a contract to rent a house for three months, then they would split after about three weeks. They would make up some kind of excuse and leave in a hurry without even turning in the keys. And apparently, they left a body behind every time.

Bus to San Jose: I'm going to skip over a lot of the details about Puerto Viejo for now, and get right to the part about the prosecutors in San Jose. It took about five hours in a bus to get from Puerto Viejo to San Jose, and I caught a cab at the bus terminal to the hotel. Of course I had to stay at the Best Western Irazu - the place where Holbert first met Jeffery Kline. The bar in the lobby of the hotel is called the "Cantina" - and that's where they first met.

All Day Long In the Public Ministry: If you've ever given a sworn statement in Panama, then you know exactly how it goes in Costa Rica. When I first got there I met with Laura Monge Cantero from the office of Technical Assistance and International Relations. They started taking my statement, but when they realized the amount of information I had, as well as the depth of detail, they had a quick meeting and decided they would be assigning the Holbert and Reese case to the office of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime. And, they wanted that prosecutor to take my statement himself, in case there were any questions or details he wanted clarified in the process. Anyway, it took all day to give the eleven page sworn statement. I walked them through every bit of information and detail. I provided them with details and contact information for sixteen witnesses. I gave them the means to contact the original source of information for every single bit of information included in the sworn complaint. I also included GPS coordinates for five locations I identified and visited in the areas of Puerto Viejo, Cocles, and Playa Negra. We went over it again, and again, and again - until they "got it." And it's the same slow and painstaking process as in Panama - you speak and the guy types, slowly. I left at about 6:00 pm and headed for the hotel.

Taxi Hit From Behind: As we were driving back to the hotel from the prosecutor's office, the taxi I was in was hit (hard) from behind by an SUV. We had stopped behind another car and apparently the other guy was not paying attention and he just drove smack into us, without ever touching his brakes. The impact was pretty serious - at first we were slammed backwards, and then thrown forwards and into the car in front of is. My seatbelt kept me from going into the windshield. The driver had a stiff back and neck, but I refused treatment and hopped into another cab to get to the hotel. My original plans included a trip down to Jaco, but at that point I decided "enough was enough" and I caught a plane the next day to return to Panama City.

Sanitized Version of Complaint: The complaint I filed with the Public Ministry in Costa Rica contains detailed contact information for all sixteen sources I've developed over the course of my investigation. Many of those sources have asked me to protect their identity to one degree or another, so therefore I am not going to release the full and complete complaint at this point. I might try to redact or delete some of the details and release something, but in fact it really doesn't matter all that much. I have already published most of the details in earlier articles on this website as I was figuring things out. In addition, the complaint is in Spanish. Anyway, I might get around to doing that at some later point in time. Right now, I've got a whole slew of higher priority issues that have to be taken care of first. I suspect now the whole Costa Rica angle - including the murder of Jeffery A. Kline and many others - will take on more importance in this investigation. Well, now that there IS an official investigation in Costa Rica, anyway. Pura vida...

Can You Add Some Detail? I know William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese were in Jaco, Costa Rica in both early 2006 and then again in May and June 2007. They probably rented two different houses. And, there are probably additional victims buried under or behind those houses. If you can shed any light on the activities of these serial killers in Jaco, Costa Rica please contact me, and thanks.

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