"I am begging this taxi driver to please come forward," said
Jeanette Stauffer, who arrived in the Costa Rican capital two days ago to push
for formal charges against three suspects detained in the killing of 23-year-old
Shannon Martin.
"I understand his difficult position, that he wants to protect his
family, but I beg him to provide information about these suspects,"
Stauffer said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The taxi driver apparently drove two men away from the scene of the crime,
said Stauffer, who added that without his testimony, the case is mostly
circumstantial. She said authorities also are searching for the driver.
"I am desperate," she said. "I fear that this violent crime
could go unsolved."
Stauffer's plea came as officials said Friday that the main suspect in the
case could go free next week if formal charges are not brought against her.
Next Thursday, Kattia Cruz will have been in prison for 18 months, the
maximum period under Costa Rican law that a suspect can remain detained without
being charged, said a court representative who spoke on customary condition of
anonymity.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Erick Martinez, could not be reached
for comment Friday despite repeated calls to his office.
But Stauffer said that Martinez assured her he would present formal charges
before the deadline.
Cruz was detained in November 2001 as the principal suspect in Martin's
slaying. Martin, a University of Kansas student who was conducting research in
Costa Rica, was stabbed to death on May 13, 2001, while walking from a bar to
her host family's home in the southern town of Golfito.
Martin had participated in a study abroad program in Costa Rica in 2000 and
returned one week before she was to graduate to gather more specimens of a
tree-dwelling fern she was researching.
Six months later, police arrested Cruz, 27, who later pointed them to Rafael
Zumbado, 48, and Luis Alberto Castro, 38. All three are from Golfito.
Zumbado and Castro were not detained after their capture under the condition
that they report to officials every 15 days and never leave the country. But
Castro was later arrested and imprisoned on a separate homicide charge.
The Costa Rican television station Telenoticias reported Thursday that all
three suspects would go on trial next week.
Stauffer appeared on national television Thursday offering a US$10,000 reward
for any information about her daughter's killing, particularly regarding the
whereabouts of the taxi driver.
On Friday, Stauffer said that she was hoping that the motive and other
elements of the crime would become clearer as the case proceeded.
"I still have a lot of unanswered questions," she said.
