Pair Allegedly Freed by Nicaragua Still Missing

A former Orange Coast College dean and his wife who were held for three weeks by the government of Nicaragua and reportedly released still have not been located, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Leo and Dolores LaJeunesse were sailing their 65-foot boat in the Caribbean off Nicaragua on Aug. 7 when the Nicaraguan Coast Guard took them into custody. At the time, they were returning to Orange County, where LaJeunesse has applied for another teaching or administrative post at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

LaJeunesse, 53, was an associate dean at the college until 1982, when he resigned to make an extensive cruise in his sailboat. He and his wife had lived in Costa Mesa.

Nicaraguan officials said the LaJeunesses had not been “detained” the past three weeks but had merely been “assisted” because of engine trouble. U.S. State Department officials said, however, the LaJeunesses had talked by phone with U.S. Embassy officials in Managua and had told them they were being held under “house arrest” at a hotel in Bluefields, Nicaragua.

After the United States protested the detention of the pair, the Nicaraguan government late Monday night said the LaJeunesses had set sail Saturday for Costa Rica.

Norma Harms, of the Nicaragua desk of the State Department, said Tuesday that there had been no sighting of the LaJeunesses.

“We’ve alerted Panama and Costa Rica, and we’re anxiously awaiting word,” Harms said. She said the State Department is not convinced that Nicaragua has freed the LaJeunesses. “Nicaragua won’t allow our people in Managua to go to Bluefields and see for themselves if they’re still there,” she said.

“Until we see them (the LaJeunesses) in person, we aren’t buying anything they (Nicaraguan government officials) are saying,” Harms said.