GUILTY Panama - Five Americans found buried, Isla Colon, July 2010

Kat

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My apologies I did not know exactly where to post this article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072400255.html

Saturday, July 24, 2010; 1:07 AM

...says police on Friday identified the remains of Cheryl Lynn Hugues...

...and the skeletal remains of another person buried in the back patio of a hotel owned by William Adolfo Cortez, of Texas...

That was all I could snip without violating TOS.

The article is quite short. Cheryl Lynn Hugues does not have a thread here in the missing subforums.

The Panamanian LE are looking to see if the skeletal remains found belong to a man from Texas that was reported missing since DEC 09. He is not named.

They further state that Cortez has a tourism company that belonged to the missing man in his name.
 
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361107&CategoryId=14088

Saturday
July 24,2010

The other skeleton could be that of U.S. citizen Bo Icelar, who has been missing since December last year, and who like Cheryl Hughes arrived in Panama several years ago and settled in Bocas del Toro, Jaen said.

Authorities are investigating a transaction in which Cortez appears registered as president of a tourism company belonging to Icelar.

The identity of the unknown male skeletal remains are speculated to be those of Bo Icelar but in other articles it is also being speculated that the remains belong to a missing man by the name of Mike Brown.

There are numerous other people that were associated with this man (Cortez, suspect) that have gone missing as well.

The below three are missing:

•Michael Watson Brown, a citizen of Holland, holder of passport number NB0865469. Married, from the Dutch Antilles, resident of Street 4A, Community of Aguacate, area of Tierra Oscura, province of Bocas del Toro.


•Manchittha Nankratoke "Nan" Brown, a citizen of Holland, holder of passport number M18119733, Michael's wife.


•Watson Brown, Michael's son.

http://www.sellingcr.com/index.php/...l-Nan-and-Watson-Brown-in-Bocas-del-Toro.html
Written by Editor | 24 July 2010


At this time I need to ask a moderator if this is still the appropriate subforum for this thread? We have several missing, one unidentified, and the accusation of mulitple murders for profit? Thank you advance mods.
 
http://www.newser.com/article/d9h97...f-american-woman-deported-back-to-panama.html

I believe the IUD that was in the OP has been identified.

They are charged with killing Cheryl Lynn Hughes, 53, a St. Louis, Missouri-native who had lived in Panama for 10 years, and Bo Icelar, who a friend described as the former owner of a Santa Fe, New Mexico, gallery.

Read more: http://www.newser.com/article/d9h97...an-deported-back-to-panama.html#ixzz0vCOqDwKW

It was thought that the IUD in the OP was Bo Icelar, the fugitives have been charged with his murder.
 
wow, we might need several threads for all the victims/missing apparently connected to these two suspects

this is insanity
 
- several aliases for both
- used to run a white supremacist store
- featured on AMW when they were wanted for car theft in Wyoming; deceptive practices in Montana; knowingly cheat & defraud in North Carolina

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=37959

now suspects in 9 murders!

should this be in the crimes in the news forum?
 
Aliases:

William Dathan Holbert
William Adolfo Cortez
Luke Gregory Kuhn
Donald Lee Brukart


Laura Michelle Reese
Jane Cortez
Jena Cortez
Michelle Brukart

I'm sure there's more ... these all came from the links already provided in this thread. Also, these two look radically different now from their AMW photos.
 
From August 2010:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/01/panama-american-serial-killings-suspects

William Dathan Holbert and Laura Michelle Reese were in a jail in Panama City today suspected of conning and killing seven fellow US expatriates and two Panamanians in cold blood.

The man known to neighbours as "Wild Bill" has confessed to murdering seven people, said Angel Calderon, a prosecuting attorney. "He has told us how many people he killed, why he killed them, how he killed them and where he buried them."

Posing as wealthy entrepreneurs, the couple allegedly befriended residents before shooting them in the head, burying them and taking over their homes and businesses. "He picked out his victims after making their acquaintance," Calderon told reporters. "Knowing that nobody would ask about them, he got rid of them."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/02/william-dathan-holbert-ja_n_667430.html

The case began when authorities found the bodies of a woman and a man buried behind a hostel run by Holbert in an area of small islands in Bocas del Toro, a Caribbean archipelago popular with tourists...

Calderon quoted Holbert as saying he established friendships with Icelar and Hughes by posing as a potential investor, then shot each in the head, buried them and took over their money and other properties...

Holbert said he also had developed a friendship with Brown, describing him as a fugitive sought American authorities on drug trafficking charges who was living under an assumed name, Calderon said. "Seeing that he had a lot of money and bank accounts, he shot him in the head," the prosecutor said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/panama-property-killings/story?id=11374933

In a place like Boca del Toro where tourists and foreigners drift in and out, the Browns' disappearance had gone unremarked. Bo Icelar had talked about leaving, so his abrupt departure wasn't enough to raise alarm bells. With Hughes, however, people noticed. Her estranged husband says Cortez "picked the wrong girl," he said. "He had no idea how many people loved her and how many people would care," Keith Werle added. "He just got greedy and picked somebody that was special."

Even though they were separated, Werle said he and Cher remained in regular contact, texting several times a day. Around the time of Hughes' disappearance, however, he felt something was off. "The last three or four texts I got were just a little strange," he said. "They weren't quite what Cher would say, and she indicated in the text that she had met someone and she was leaving"...

The police finally mounted an investigation when expat blogger Don Winner began digging into the disappearances after being contacted by one of Hughes' friends. Winner began writing daily about the suspicions surrounding Cortez.

Still awaiting trial, as far as I can tell.
 
They have finally been sentenced... I'm not sure how many people they actually murdered, I thought it was 9 but they were charged with 5 - one apparently a child. One of the victims was "Mike Brown" that may have been an alias, I'm going to see if I can find out more - if they don't know exactly who Mike Brown was he could be a missing person???

PANAMA CITY --*U.S. citizen William Dathan Holbert was sentenced to 47 years in prison by a court in Panama for robbing and killing five other Americans in a Caribbean tourist destination, authorities said Monday.

Holbert's ex-wife Laura Reese was sentenced to 26 years for her role.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/william-dathan-holbert-sentenced-panama-murders/
 

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