Suspect in La Cruz triple murder arrested in Nicaragua after more violent attacks

NUEVO DIARIO / Courtesy.

April 13^th, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) A Nicaraguan man who Costa Rican authorities seek in a gruesome triple murder in La Cruz, Guanacaste, has been captured in Nicaragua, where the man was also a suspect in a series of violent crimes.

Victor Javier Ruiz Hernandez, 19, also known as “Loco,” was taken into custody in the town of Consuelo, located in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN).

The man was wanted by Nicaraguan authorities for a string of violent offenses since the triple murder in Costa Rica, including an additional murder and the severe injury of two children ages 9 and 11, whom he is accused of attacking with a machete.

In an interview with a Nicaraguan television station, TN8, Ruiz confessed to attacking the children, saying he slashed one of the children in the neck with a machete.  The other child was struck in the hand, losing two fingers.  Ruiz expressed no remorse in the interview.

Reports indicate Ruiz also confessed to Nicaraguan police that he killed a 26-year-old man on April 2^nd.

Costa Rican authorities, for their part, are in the process of requesting Ruiz’s extradition to Costa Rica on charges that he committed a gruesome triple murder on March 29^th in La Cruz, Guanacaste, leaving one victim decapitated.

Costa Rican authorities said that the robbery of ¢200,000 was motive in the crime.

The victims in that crime have been identified as Arcides Arroligia Zúñiga, 70; Fidel Maldonado Aguilar, 25; and a third man known only as “Victor,” believed to be 27 years old.  All were Nicaraguan nationals.

Reports indicate that the three victims, as well as the suspect, were all en route on foot to Nicaragua through a remote, unguarded area.  The three victims told an acquaintance that they were going to Nicaragua to make a few purchases, and were carrying about ¢200,000 between them.  Authorities suspect robbery as the motive behind the crime.