Man's Body Found Under Floor (La Nacion - Nov 2007)
By CARLOS ARGUEDAS C.Y NICOLÁS AGUILAR R. for La Nacion in Costa Rica - (Published on Thursday, 8 November 2007) - The body was found buried under a cement floor in a house in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, last Monday. It seems to be a man who was 1.8 meters tall. The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) reported that the body belonged to a heavy man, and a person who was presumably strong. Jorge Rojas Vargas, the Director of the Police Force, said that although they have recovered a skeletal body, there was some skin tissue on a finger and from which they hope to be able to recover a fingerprint. This means that, through a chemical process, they might be able to regenerate the rest of the fabric that makes the fingerprint, which will then be compared to the database maintained by the Police Force and thus try to identify the victims. (more) Click Here To Read The Full Article (304 words)






(12 November 2007) By Bryan Kay - Special to A.M. Costa Rica - A bizarre detail emerged over the weekend in the case of the body found buried under a slab of concrete on a U.S. citizen’s property near Puerto Viejo. The U.S. citizen, Joe Freconna, from Cleveland, Ohio, said that the patch of patio under which the as-yet-unidentified man’s body was uncovered had been mysteriously put down while he was back in the United States. He said that he and wife, Sue, had purchased the beachside property in Playa Negra in February 2006. When the couple — who live most of the year in the United States — returned in February, the slab of concrete was there where there had previously been an area of bushes and shrubbery, they said Ms. Freconna said the discovery of the makeshift patio had immediately raised suspicions, leading them to contact a lawyer. The lawyer had said that their imaginations were running wild with them, according to Ms. Freconna, and the incident was brushed aside. (more)
By DON WINNER for 
Former President Ernesto Perez Balladares gave his sworn testimony yesterday before the Public Ministry in the continuing investigations into scandal of the alleged payment of bribes to lawmakers to get their votes to approve the Multimodal Industrial and Service Center (CEMIS) in 2002. Perez Balladares was accompanied by his lawyer Luis Carlos Cabezas, and he gave his statement to the General Secretary of the Public Ministry, Nedelka Diaz, said sources from the institution.
Criminal investigators from the Public Ministry of Panama inspected the house of Bo Icelar located on Isla Colon in the province of Bocas del Toro yesterday, in search of new evidence to determine whether he was murdered at his residence or at the house "owned" by William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese in the area of Cauchero, where five bodies were found buried. Officials from the Public Ministry have already inspected the residence of Holbert and Reese, where they found satanic books, long knives and machetes, and even gold teeth which presumably Holbert took from his victims. They also found personal documents from the Brown family, copies of passports of the wife and son, as well as valuable jewelry, syringes Holbert used to inject steroids. (TVN Noticas) (more) 

FINE. The Supreme Court of Panama imposed a fine of $200 to the Director of the National Immigration Service, María Cristina González, for having engaged in misconduct to due process by ordering the arrest and deportation of a Colombian citizen Henrique Howard Holguín, who was arrested in 2009 and then deported to his home country. According to the Court, Hurtado's human rights were violated, and the law says that all government officials are obliged to respect these rights. (La Prensa)
By DON WINNER for
The confessed murderer William Holbert, aka "Wild Bill", can be described as a psychopathic serial killer, according to the definitions of these terms, as made clear during an interview given today during the TVN Channel 2 morning news broadcast by Adrianna Sandoval, of the Pan American and Caribbean Hypnosis Association. Wild Bill refused to submit to psychological and psychiatric testing at the Institute of Legal Medicine, so therefore experts have not yet been able to determine his mental state. Sandoval said it will be necessary to apply the psychological tests to see what kind of murderer he is. She said there are serial killers who are "missionaries" who commit murder to "save the world", others kill for profit, some to achieve positions or power, some for pleasure, and finally some kill due to dementia. (more)
Little by little, the details about the case of illegal wiretaps in the offices of the Prosecutor of Administration are being revealed. Jorge Abrego, the former security chief of this institution, admitted to having placed wire taps on several phones, on order of Prosecutor Oscar Ceville. During an interview on the Channel 13 Telemetro Morning Report, Abrego said Ceville used several strategies to try to prevent him from revealing the details of the operation, and among those he said Ceville sent the journalist Julio Bermúdez to intimidate him. However, Bermudez, who spoke during the news program via telephone, said he was not sent by the prosecutor Ceville to meet with Abrego. (Telemetro Reporta)


Panama's Attorney General, Giuseppe Bonissi, gave more importance to the extortion complaint filed by the Prosecutor of Administration, Oscar Ceville, than to the allegations of wiretaps and recordings of telephone conversations of government employees in this institution without a proper court order. Bonissi based his position on the fact that the Criminal Code allows for sentences of up to 10 years for the crime of extortion, while illegal wiretaps can be punished with 2 to 4 years in prison. Because of this, Bonissi said that at this moment the Public Ministry will be at the forefront of this investigation, which will be compiled into one single file, depending on the circumstances.
The Prosecutor of Administration - through a press release - said the "false and defamatory" accusations made by the former Chief of Security of this entity Jorge Ábrego are part of a campaign to "weaken" their action "within a publicized trial." The statement would be referring to the case against former Attorney General Ana Matilde Gomez, which begins next Wednesday. Meanwhile, former President Martin Torrijos acknowledged through his spokeswoman that he was informed that someone was "blackmailing" Ceville and left the matter in the hands of the Security Council. He did not say if he also knew about the wiretaps conducted by Ábrego, supposedly ordered by Ceville. (La Prensa)

The skeletons unearthed on a property "owned" by William Dathan Holbert aka "Wild Bill" were taken from the community in the area of Aguacate in the province of Bocas del Toro, to the morgue located in the capital of the province of Chiriqui. Experts are expected to perform tests to identify the bodies that supposedly belong to Mike Brown, his wife and son. José Vicente Pachar, the Deputy Director of Legal Medicine, so far has confirmed that the remains belonged to two males and one female. Pachar said one of the remains could belong to a male adolescent due to the size of the bones. In the morgue of David, the bones will be assessed by an anthropologist and a forensic dentist. (La Estrella)
William Dathan Holbert, aka "Wild Bill", distracted his victims in order to kill them. When being questioned, the confessed murderer Holbert explained that he killed Cheryl Lynn Hughes as she showed him some monkeys in a wooded area in the province of Bocas del Toro, and that he killed Bo Icelar inside of his residence. During the judicial proceedings, "Wild Bill" said he shot his victims in the nape of the neck.
David, Chiriqui - This afternoon the human remains unearthed in Bocas del Toro on land "owned" by William Dathan Holbert, (aka "Wild Bill") were taken to the city of David in the province of Chiriqui in the Republic of Panama. These include five bodies, including two adult males, one boy and two women, said José Vicente Pachar, the coroner who heads the group of specialists from the Public Ministry. Pachar said today, Wednesday, the second phase of forensic investigations will continue at the judicial morgue of Chiriqui. The first phase was to extract the bodies, and there efforts at this stage were supported by forensic anthropologists and forensic dentists, among others. (La Prensa)
By DON WINNER for
(AP) – PANAMA CITY — Authorities said they recovered three more bodies Tuesday on property owned by a jailed U.S. man who prosecutors say has confessed to killing five fellow Americans to get their money and property in a Panamanian resort area. Jose Pachard, deputy director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, said the remains were found with the help of information provided by the suspect, William Dathan Holbert. He said searchers found the bodies of an adult man, adult woman and child on the grounds of a hostel operated by Holbert. Two other bodies were found earlier, touching off a search for Holbert and his wife.

