Jeff Dunsavage's Blog Posts Tagged 'Panama' (11)

The daughter of an Ottawa man who'd been missing in Panama since November says a body found last Friday in the Central American country was her dad. Ed Moynan's daughter, Sandy, posted a message on Facebook confirming that her father's body had been identified.She thanked family, friends, patients and colleagues for their support over the last four months and said funeral details would be posted shortly.…

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It's difficult, to say the least, to find good data on foreigners who disappear or are murdered while traveling abroad, but sometimes you can find information about overall levels of violence. This article in The Economist magazine includes an illuminating graphic depicting homicide rates throughout Central America.…

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A heavily armed suspected killer of two expats  in Panama, has been arrested in Panama. Border patrol officers found Spanish citizen, Javier Martin, the evening of Jan. 14. He was wanted in connection with two murders: U.S. citizen Don North and Jean Pierre Bouahard of France. Read the full article.

He is the second suspected multiple murderer…

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I just stumbled upon this BBC article about the maddening wait the family of Alex Humphrey, missing in Panama since August 2009, has had to endure to find out if a badly burned body found last year is Alex.

Alex's Mom, Gill Humphrey said: "We are meeting diplomatic blocks every time we move."

Gill said Interpol Panama should have contacted Interpol in the UK to arrange for DNA from a male…

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Important story on CNN.com about the two American nutjobs who were killing ex-pat property owners in Panama and just taking over their properties (according to one of the blogs I read, they had a local lawyer taking care of the paperwork). The couple was caught in Nicaragua a few weeks ago, after a detour through Costa Rica. This region attracts all kinds -- the hopeful…

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The following is from Top10 Costa Rica. I don't normally copy and past a full story, but there was no easy way to link straight to this one, so I hope the good folks at Top10 don't mind.

Using Costa Rica as a rest stop, the two foreigners detained in Nicaragua have been clearly identified as the American couple wanted in Panama in the death of at least one U.S.…

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Call me obsessive. I don't care. Five years ago, the Natalee Holloway disappearance was, in my mind, just another media feeding frenzy masquerading as journalism. Now I ask: for all the attention the case got, how much interest did the U.S. government take in the plight of a missing (likely murdered) U.S. citizen and her family?

Five years since, and families of the missing are still left on their own to invent the wheel when a loved one disappears outside their country's borders. It…

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A blog post in ArizonaCentral.com: "Arpaio Says No to Mexico Travel. How About Honduras?"

While I know the suggestion is made with tongue firmly planted in cheek as a reference to a junket the sheriff's team apparently made to Roatan on the Arizona taxpayer's dime, Honduras IS being heavily promoted as a tourism destination and precious little media attention is being paid to the tourists and expats (as well as…

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On Mother's Day 2009, my brother disappeared after leaving the beach on the West End of Isla de Roatan, Honduras. I didn't know at the time that a month earlier, almost to the day, Ron Scheepstra had disappeared from Xcalak, Mexico, a remote village on the Yucatan Peninsula close enough to Roatan for Ron and his fishing buddies to be using Roatan tide charts. Over the next few months, more men would disappear in Central America and the Caribbean: Alex Humphrey, in Panama; David Gimelfarb in…

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A reporter recently asked me two questions about the material I've been posting, and they were exactly the right questions:



* What do you find suspicious about these disappearances?

* You talk about 8 men missing in the region in 10 months -- how many disappeared in the prior 10 months?



Here is an excellent example of a journalist doing his job correctly -- holding me accountable for my assertions and seeking hard facts and data.



I'll begin with the second… Continue

The Missing Americans Project crossed the 100-members mark this weekend - a bittersweet accomplishment. So much of our new membership and visits have come from Missouri, the home state of Leo Finley, who disappeared in Roatan, Honduras, Christmas morning. I feel a special connection with the Finleys, as my brother Joe disappeared from Roatan under similar circumstances on Mother's Day 2009.



It's sad to know that our organization grows and will continue to grow primarily through… Continue