Last week the two Emilys were found along the highway to Puerto Viejo, brutally murdered. They had been shot repeatedly at close range, and while published reports said neither girl had been raped, one was left naked and the other was nearly naked. Their deaths shook the Antioch campus in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and raised new questions about the risks of sending young Americans to study abroad. Eagen and Howell, only 19, were completely on their own in an area known for drug trafficking and, in recent weeks, for three apparently unrelated homicides.
The three young women loved Puerto Viejo so much they had decided to move there for the duration of their time in Costa Rica. Sellers bought a plot of land near the beach, intending to build a small house. She also rented a red Hyundai SUV for the move from San Jose. Over the weekend, they stayed in a $24-a-night room at a beachfront motel, Cabinas del Tesoro. Around 10:30 on Sunday night, Howell and Eagen decided to go out. Sellers, who wasn’t feeling well, stayed in the room.
Howell and Eagen were last seen alive around 11 p.m. at Johnny’s Place, a disco in the town. Investigators say they were killed between 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. in some bushes just off the highway between Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, nine miles away. Howell was shot once in the head and once in the spine. Eagen was shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder. Investigators say there were at least two killers. Howell was stripped except for her hiking boots; Eagen’s body was still partly clothed.
The red Hyundai was found wrecked and burned some 60 miles away on the highway to San Jose. Police say a taxi driver saw the SUV flipped on its side about 3 a.m. and took a man into San Jose to hire a tow truck. The two-man tow-truck crew told police they drove the man back to the accident scene and got the SUV back on the road. Then they noticed blood on one of the seats. They questioned the man, who pulled a gun and told them to set the vehicle on fire. At that point, they said, he forced them to drive him into San Jose and then simply disappeared.
That leaves the cops with no clear motive and no obvious suspects. At Antioch last week, grieving students planted two young trees as living memorials–a fitting tribute to two young Emilys.
