Middletown native helps ID suspected killers in Panama
By Heather Yakin - Times Herald-Record: From the annals of "local boy makes very, very good" — Don Winner, a native of Middletown, has for the third time in the past few years helped identify and capture suspected killers in Panama.
Winner, who now lives in Panama, writes the website Panama-Guide.com, an English-language news blog that serves the expatriate community in that country.
His recent work, which helped in the capture of Javier Martin, will be featured at 10 p.m. Saturday on "48 Hours Mystery" on CBS, as "The Dark Side of Paradise."
The case involved two ex-pats — American Don North and Frenchman Jean Pierre Bouhard — who turned up dead in early 2011; their boats and property turned up in the hands of Spaniard Javier Martin.
Both men had encountered Martin before they disappeared.
Winner went to work, assisting North's nephew Ezra North in his quest to file a police complaint.
Winner's investigation, coupled with leads provided by his readers — helped push the official investigation that led to Martin's subsequent arrest.
Previously, Winner and his readers aided a victim's relatives and helped identify and track down William "Wild Bill" Dathan Holbert and his girlfriend, Laura Michelle Reese, who were charged in 2010 with killing five people in Panama and one in Costa Rica to take their property and money.
That case was featured on "Dateline" in a segment titled "Stealing Paradise."
Earlier in 2010, Winner put his skills to work for the family of homicide victim Denise Mullen Hiller, advocating for them with police.
The end result was her boyfriend being charged with murder.
