Carla Stefaniak, 36, a Florida resident, was celebrating her birthday in the typically-peaceful Central American country.
Espinoza Martinez, a Nicaraguan who was allegedly working illegally as a security guard at the hotel La Mares, which rents out rooms through Airbnb, was arrested on suspicion of killing Stefaniak.
Family members have kept relatives, friends, and others interested in the cast updated through a Facebook page, “Finding Carla,” that was started when she was missing.
On Dec. 13, the page shared an article from the Q Costa Rica website.
Citing sources close to the case, the website said that there may be three or four people involved in the death, based on forensic analysis of the body.
“Investigators are working on a version of a guest who would have heard noises coming from victim’s villa, furniture being moved and cleaning inside the villa. This, allegedly occurring hours after the victim would have been murdered,” it added.
Investigators found the villa clean on Dec. 3. A lawyer representing the hotel owners claimed that it was cleaned after other guests had stayed there following Stefaniak’s stay.
Stefaniak was killed on Nov. 27 or Nov. 28 and investigators say the motive was sexually motivated, believing Stefaniak was killed while trying to fight back against an attempted sexual assault.
Father Speaks Out
At a press conference following the discovery of his daughter’s body, Carlos Caicedo said that he was in “terrible pain.”“The whole world will know about you in a tragic way. What a terrible pain. How I would have liked to go through my life unnoticed, without the whole world knowing about us,” Carlos Caicedo, Stefaniak’s father, said in Spanish at a press conference on Dec. 5.
“It doesn’t give me any comfort but I really want the authorities, especially the judicial authorities, to track down those responsible for this abominable and terrible act, and to bring the full weight of the law upon them,” he added.
He said that he saw her body at the morgue. She had her head bashed in and throat slashed, an image he said has stuck with him.
The death came after the U.S. State Department in September issued a travel advisory for U.S. nationals visiting Costa Rica. “Exercise normal precautions in Costa Rica. Some areas have increased risk,” the agency said.
The FBI and State Department are involved in the investigation of the murder.
Airbnb Concerns
Stefaniak’s death came just weeks after a couple died from carbon monoxide poisoning at an Airbnb residence they were renting in Mexico.Airbnb said they’ve reached out the families of the victims, and said it runs background checks on U.S. residents to look for prior felony convictions, ex-offender registrations, and significant misdemeanors.
The company has not indicated that it will change any policies based on the deaths.
Anthony Roman, a risk management expert who runs his own firm Roman & Associates, said that travelers should carry portable carbon monoxide detectors while noting that there’s no way to fully predict what could go wrong in a rental, whether it is through Airbnb or not.
Jordan Arnold, a former prosecutor in Manhattan and an executive managing director at security company K2 Intelligence, said that the company can do background checks but can’t prevent all attacks.
“Airbnb or Marriott—no host can 100 percent eliminate risk for a guest,” he said. “The only person to blame for this incident is the man charged with homicide. It’s not the fault of the victim or Airbnb.”
