Suspect Sought in Costa Rica Slayings

Police investigating the slayings of two Americans were hunting Wednesday for a man who was seen with the women shortly before they vanished near a Caribbean beach town.

The bodies of Emily Howell of Lexington, Ky., and Emily Eagen of Ann Arbor, Mich., were found Monday along a highway near the town of Cahuita, 90 miles east of San Jose, the capital. Both women were 19 years old.

Francisco Ruiz of the Judicial Investigation Organization told a news conference that the two women were seen with a man shortly before they vanished late Sunday and that police were hunting for that suspect.

He gave no details but said the number of footprints at the scene raised the possibility of two attackers.

Howell, a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, was in Costa Rica on a photography project, according to the school’s dean of students, Scott Warren.

Eagen and another Antioch student, Shauna Sellers, were visiting Howell, and the three were spending a weekend in a tourist cabin in Puerto Viejo.

The owner of the cabin, Charlie Wanger of Boston, said Howell and Eagen left at about 10:30 Sunday night, heading to a restaurant in the town’s center.

“This was a sad thing. They were two very good kids,” he said.

Ruiz said Eagen had been shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder. Howell had been shot in the head and back. He said the killings occurred between 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m.

Although he said the women were killed where they were found, local residents said they did not hear any gunshots, and the site is only about 200 yards from a police checkpoint along the highway.

A woman who gave her name only as Joanna, who lives in a house about 60 yards from where the bodies were found, said she heard the noises of somebody unloading something from a car very late Sunday night.

Police believe there was a sexual attack, Ruiz said, noting that valuable goods were not taken. Credit cards, clothing and other belongings were found near the bodies.

A sport-utility vehicle the women had used was found burned Monday on a major highway just outside San Jose, said judicial police spokeswoman Margarita Morales. The car had been rented by Sellers, a 20-year-old Canadian, the newspaper La Nacion reported.

“I can’t speak. I feel very bad, very confused, very stricken,” Sellers was quoted as saying.

Ruiz said the FBI office in Miami had offered help in the inquiry, but he added that “for now, it is better to wait” and perform the investigation with Costa Rican agents.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Dodd expressed confidence in the police investigation but declined to comment further.

Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez said he did not believe the incident would affect relations with the United States.

“We have the obligation to give guarantees of the security for those who visit us just as we have for our own citizens,” he said. “The life of every human being has equal worth.”

The area is part of Limon province, where five slayings have occurred this month. The region is home to a depressed banana industry as well as beaches popular with tourists.

Local newspapers reported that hotels in the region have already had tourist reservations canceled.