When a local beauty turned up dead in Nicaragua's San Juan del Sur, the dream of paradise became a nightmare for one expat American surfer. In town, a two-block circumference around the courthouse was sealed off. Honduras had 41.7 homicides per 100,000 people in 2017. He wore a blue Hurley baseball cap and a black T-shirt with the letters ep embossed in green; he'd placed a small voice recorder on the desktop. In the street outside the Miscellania Calderon, where I'd buy all of my sundries over the next three months, a huge crowd had assembled, everyone hushed and looking at something I couldn't see. She threw out the cell-phone records because she said they didn't prove Volz's physical location. Under Nicaraguan law, the defense may choose between a trial by judge or jury. Day after day in the months leading up to Volz's trial, the Calderons, their friend Juan, and I waxed our boards and paddled out to the four-footers. A 33-year-old Nicaraguan man whom Gutirrez met a day earlier, is the main suspect in the sexually motivated murder. The next day, February 15, Rojas presented the defense. Travel; Money; Search input. World Canada Cuba Crime. MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaraguan authorities say a U.S. citizen has been killed in the streets of Managua as violence and social unrest continue to grip the country's capital. Earnest and crew-cut, with fluent Nicaraguan-accented Spanish, Thompson, 32, now directs the upscale Pelican Eyes resort's A. Jean Brugger Foundation, which provides educational opportunities to students. In the photos, her belt is unbuckled and the first two buttons of her fly are undone, revealing the waistband of her underwear. An hour later, police retrieved them. But Tony D'Souza was on the scene from day one. And that's the incredibly tragic irony of this case. In August Costa Rica was in the spotlight when two female tourists were killed within a week. A few men in the surfer crowd, I noticed, had turned to hustling, befriending tourists and intimidating them into paying for the night's drinks or staging phony drug deals in which the tourists got burned. I was not going to leave my son. There are the impressive colonial cities of Granada and Leon, the island of Ometepe and the Mombacho volcano for hiking and trekking, the coffee farm region of Jinotega and Matagalpa in the mountainous regions, while the gorgeous surf beaches of the Pacific Coast go without saying. I said to her that her daughter would never live again, maybe we could do something. Volz's family, his defense team, and Holmann all emphatically deny having suggested a settlement. The Ortega of today is not the Ortega of the past; he has been actively reassuring investors that the favorable business climate here will not change. Eric had said to me, 'Dad, do not come over here; there are guys with clubs.' I used to see Eric surfing., In other words, Roque didn't want to talk about it. (His, he said, was unreliable.) This is what a mother wanted not a million dollars, but justice, as the cameras flashed and rolled. Consensus among the embassy staff and the other two foreign reporters present was that the prosecution's case was too weak to have been brought in the first place. The gunfire erupted after a group of . ADVERTISEMENT. See Entry, Exit & Visa Requirements below. The expat recovered after surgery; the hustler was arrested and released, and a few weeks later he left town. I'm afraid., The people in town they're angry, another echoed. Where is that sanitation going to drain? If he'd had all the facts at the arraignment, Palma stated, he would have thrown the case out due to lack of evidence. But the judge had tossed out all but three of Volz's witnesses as redundant, allowing him only Nick Purdy, the consultant; Ricardo Castillo, the journalist; and Rossy Estrada, the hairstylist. His Century 21 money poured in, and eventually it grew beyond a local newsletter and became the international EP magazine.. Over 40 years?. In early 2005, having visited San Juan off and on for six years, he decided to move to Nicaragua. He had a view you don't see as much in mountain towns, Chris McNamara, a Tahoe climber who made bouldering films with Volz, wrote me in an e-mail. "What makes it shocking is that you feel safe at these all-inclusive resorts," said Mike Sington, a retired entertainment. A lot of the expats in San Juan, Volz explained, quite frankly, I don't connect with them. You've seen these developments, said Mayor Holmann. This was my fourth attempt to get into the prison in two weeks; what was different about today was that I finally had a letter from Judge Toruo extending me access to visit Volz, for which I'd had to lobby all the way to the office of a Supreme Court magistrate. Two Canadians were killed and a third wounded in a shooting at their five-star hotel in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen, state authorities said. They were taunting and jeering. As Jan left with two legal advisers, he recalled, people were pounding on our car, hitting it with clubs. I knew I wasn't going to be in Nicaragua forever, and I was always very up front and honest with Doris about that., Doris was Miss San Juan a couple years ago, Thompson said. More than 31 million Americans visited Mexico in 2016, the National Travel & Tourism Office says, and State Department data shows there were reports of 75 American homicide victims there. 3. [4] She was asphyxiated from manual neck compression, and ligature strangulation due to the necklace she was wearing. You were in Managua at 5 p.m. and arrived in San Juan at 6:30. Published by at May 28, 2022. The most amazing part about visiting this active volcano is how close you can get to the lip of the crater in a private vehicle - you simply drive right up to the edge and park . Jimnez's uncle pointed his finger at the sky and said, This is justice for our small town, for Nicaragua, and for all of Central America! As Volz and Chamorro were hustled into waiting police trucks, the crowd hung off the walls of the surrounding buildings, whistling and shouting that one word: Justice!. You know, he told me, this sort of thing exists everywhere in the world. tourist murdered in nicaragua. He didn't like his picture being taken, and menaced the photographers the first day. Always now, too, half-clad gringa girls stroll past in flip-flops on their way to Marie's Bar, where the party on the weekends spills out the door, or Big Wave Dave's, where expats line the counters trading notes on the day's sailfish catch, on the going price for laborers, on the quality of the local beauties, of which there are many. Nobody does: Fear of blood feuds looms large in San Juan, and Chamorro's and Dangla's extended families are enmeshed in everything. 2022 Hyatt Place Managua 815 Managua, Nicaragua from $144/night Yemaya Reefs Colibri Boutique Hotel 402 Little Corn Island, Nicaragua from $101/night 2022 Verdad Nicaragua 250 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua from $90/night And in October, authorities . He turned 15 just 12 days before he was murdered. All these occurrences have raised alarm for tourists and backpackers. A few other expats, people who had unsuccessful real estate dealings with him at Century 21, readily vilify him in open anger. And how violent would the mob get? Eric didn't do it. A court clerk shouted, There is shooting outside!. You'll have to talk to my lawyer.. As Volz left the arraignment, the mob saw through the ruse and rushed him. I'm convinced that if they had caught any one of us, they would have killed us.. Eric is innocent I'm not trying to buy his innocence., Meanwhile, they kept up their vigil. After the murder , Tercero fled New York to Nicaragua . And then I read the evidence regarding Volz's alibi: cell-phone records, a time-stamped instant-messaging log, page after page of statements by the ten people most of whom I would later interview myself supporting Volz's account. I realized that hanging out in the mountains and staying in shape was great, but I wasn't really doing much., Volz's climbing friends would be among the first to come to his defense after his arrest. If you decide to travel to Nicaragua: Read the Department of State's COVID-19 page before planning any international travel, and read the Embassy COVID-19 page for country-specific COVID-19 information. I need my daughter., Other witnesses were brought forth to call Volz's alibi into question, including the Hertz delivery driver, Victor Morales, who testified that one of Volz's friends had asked him to say that he saw Volz at the EP office that day when he didn't, at which point the prosecution spoke at length about why Leidy de los Santos would have signed Volz's rental agreement. The family of Carla Stefaniak said they were able to see the body late Tuesday night, one week after they last heard from the 36-year-old woman while she was on vacation. Volz's team would eventually include Jacqueline Becerra, a lawyer with the multinational firm Greenberg Traurig and president-elect of the Federal Bar Association's South Florida chapter; Simon Strong, of Holder International, a company specializing in risk management; Melissa Campbell, a music-industry publicist and family friend; private security from multinational Corporate Security Consultants (CSC); and Ramn Rojas, a prominent Nicaraguan lawyer who successfully defended Daniel Ortega in a civil case in 2001. How much could she have earned in her life? February 14, 2018. Volz took up climbing at a local gym when he was 11, as a way to deal with his parents' divorce. Only one document cast suspicion on his alibi: a rental agreement from Hertz. And do you know how we are treated when we go to the U.S.? The video shows the sharp edge of Jimnez's coffin resting on Volz's shoulder. Volz, it alleged, had offered Chamorro $5,000 to go to Sol Fashion, where the American hit and kicked his ex-girlfriend, then raped, sodomized, and killed her. Join Outside+ to get Outside magazine, access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more. In 2004, Volz joined his father for a ten-day trip to Iraq, photographing country singer Chely Wright's tour as she entertained the troops. About the murder? As I'd already read in the papers, Dangla's police statement alleged that at 10:00 a.m. on the day of the murder, he was standing outside the Costa Azul hotel when Volz stopped in a low, white car with another man in the passenger seat and told him to come to Sol Fashion at 1:00 p.m., where Volz allegedly came out of the shop, handed him two black garbage bags full of what felt like clothes, and told him to put them in the car. But the people of San Juan had made up their minds: At Big Wave Dave's, the long-haired beauties tending bar began casually rebuffing expat advances with the simple and musical refrain Gringos son asesinos. Gringos are murderers. First published on Thu 4 Nov 2021 17.30 EDT. Petty theft is a persistent annoyance. When Rojas asked him why Dangla was lying, he said he didn't know. The town didn't know him; that's why they were so quick to condemn him., Have you heard the expression 'Pueblo pequeo, infierno grande'? he asked. There is a lot of jealousy here. While Volz, as one friend puts it, had the world by a string, Jimnez, according to everyone, was the prettiest girl in town. The last tourist to be reported killed was a 39-year-old man from Denver, Colorado, who police say was thrown from an SUV and run over in San Juan in February 2020. On the higher end, this could mean a $500,000, 2,500-square-foot house in a gated community overlooking one of these stunning beaches, with its own restaurants, swimming pools, shops, clubhouses, DirecTV, wireless Internet, and full security. Volz's father, Jan, is a country-music-tour organizer and founding member of an alternative Christian band called the 77's; his mother, Maggie Anthony, is an interior decorator. Agreeing to try to arrange a tte--tte between Jimnez's mother and Volz's defense lawyers, Baltodano invited Mercedes Alvarado to lunch at the Gran Diamante restaurant, near Rivas on Lake Nicaragua. The call lasted nearly an hour. The Nicaraguan criminal-justice system does not yet test for DNA, and I found no fingerprint evidence against any of the defendants. Rivas returned to Nicaragua to take care of his dying father and was arrested, tortured . The case for Volz's innocence seemed obvious, irrefutable. As I left, I thought back to Modelo and the last moments I spent with Volz. While many developments can't be seen from the gatehouses where guards stop prying visitors, this one is too big to hide. I have to admit that all the rumors, coupled with the Diario articles, the number of people who said they didn't know or like Volz, and the certainty of Jimnez's family and friends, had led me to have little doubt of his guilt. The ultimate purpose is not yet clear, but in the meantime I have become a lightning rod for politics, compassion, prayer, and love. Officially, 20,000 people live here; according to the local barber, Roberto Lpez Mora, it's really just a few extended families Lpezes, Chamorros, Calderons, Sanchezes, Danglas tracing their roots to the time before records. It doesn't take more than a day to start recognizing faces: the oldest beer-bellied expat with his young Nica girlfriend, the Rastafarian trinket hustler who promises he can get you any-ting, any-ting. 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