![]() Hughes' husband, Keith Werle, from whom she had separated, also had a hard time believing Hughes had abandoned her home. Hodge wasn't the only one who thought the story sounded fishy. "That was what really made me wonder what was going on because Cher took the little dog, Feldman, everywhere she went," Hodge said. In March 2010, however, when another American went missing, Hodge took notice: her friend Cheryl Hughes disappeared suddenly, leaving behind her beloved dogs, abandoning her business and her home on the private island she had bought when she got married. I said, 'God, if I would've known he was going to give the house away, we would've bought it.'" "That struck me as very odd," Hodge said. So when the Cortezes told next-door neighbor Sandi Hodge that Bo had left suddenly in November of 2009 and sold them his property at a reduced price, Hodge says people were surprised, but mostly by the price. In the expact community on Bocas, friends say he had become increasingly disenchanted and made it known that he wanted to sell his house. It turns out Michael Brown had his own checkered past: he was in the witness protection program, having turned witness against several drug dealers back in the United States.īo Icelar had owned an art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Browns kept to themselves few people knew them. In 2007, when the Brown family disappeared and the Cortezes took over their home, renaming it Hacienda Cortez, no one thought much of it. The five have been identified as Michael Brown, his wife and teenage son Bo Icelar and Cheryl Lynn Hughes. Five Americans, whom Panamanian police say he killed to steal their homes, businesses, and money. Hodge, an expat from California who moved to Bocas del Toro five years ago said, "Everybody knew he was crazy but nobody thought he was a killer."īut now Panamanian police say "Wild Bill" Cortez - real name William Dathan Holbert – has confessed to the cold-blooded murder of five people. Cortez was known for his guns and his wild parties, which earned him the nickname "Wild Bill."Īs neighbor Sandi Hodge said, "He was loud and big and wild, but mostly we just kind of ignored him." But from the beginning, their behavior raised eyebrows. They claimed to be well-to-do entrepreneurs who made their living from real estate. The couple who introduced themselves to neighbors as Bill and Jane Cortez arrived in Bocas del Toro around 2007. It's a place that, Panamanian police say, provided the perfect cover for one couple to quietly kill off their neighbors in order to steal their property and their cash. And they may be only half joking.īocas is a place where expatriates come and go, a peaceful, out-of-the-way archipelago, much of it accessible only by boat. 11, 2010 — - Locals say expatriates move to the Panamanian province of Bocas del Toro when they're either wanted or unwanted – wanted by the law, or unwanted by society. "I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took.Aug. "This is not accidental," Bowen wrote in the note. "I scared myself not by the action of calmly strangling the woman I've loved for one and a half years … but by my entire lack of remorse," wrote Bowen in the note.īowen had one last drink at the Omni Royal New Orleans hotel before walking over to an outside terrace and throwing himself off the edge.Ī rooftop surveillance camera captured his nervous pacing back and forth. 5, Bowen apparently went to work, delivering groceries, and spent $1,500 on food, drugs and strippers, according to his suicide note. Since then, their romance reportedly hit a few bumps in the road, with frequent loud arguments fueled by Hall's belief that her 28-year-old beau was cheating on her.Īfter killing Hall - the remains have yet to be positively identified because of the state of the corpse - in a crime of passion on Oct. They refused to evacuate their neighborhood, where they lived in a simple home without electricity and spent their days feeding stray cats and mixing cocktails for random visitors.
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