The mother of a Kansas University student slain in Costa Rica lashed out at federal officials Monday, accusing both the FBI and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., of misleading her.

“They gave me a false sense of security – that the FBI was very much involved in the investigation of my daughter’s murder. And now I find out they weren’t,” said Jeanette Stauffer of Topeka.

“All the FBI did was read the reports that were turned in. They never had an agent set foot in Golfito,” she said, referring to the Costa Rican town where her daughter, Shannon Martin, 23, was found slain May 13, 2001.

An autopsy found Martin had been stabbed 15 times.

Earlier this month, a Costa Rican judge ordered the release of two men arrested in connection with Martin’s death – Luis Alberto Castro, 38, and Rafael Zumbado, 50 – because of insufficient evidence. Zumbado is still in jail on unrelated drug charges.

A third suspect, Katia Vanesa Cruz Murillo, remains in custody.

“Cruz is an addict who can’t be trusted,” Stauffer said. “In her statement, she put (Castro and Zumbado) at the crime scene – other than that, they don’t have enough evidence to keep them in custody. And if they don’t have enough evidence to keep them in custody, then they don’t have enough evidence to prosecute them, either.”

If the FBI had taken a more active role in the case, Stauffer said, that evidence would have been developed.

Jeff Lanza, a Kansas City-based spokesman for the FBI, on Monday said he had asked for more information on the agency’s role in the investigation.

“Until I hear back from them, there isn’t much I can say,” Lanza said.

Stauffer said Brownback’s office exaggerated the FBI’s involvement in the case.

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“They weren’t as involved as I’d been led to believe,” she said.

But Eric Hotmire, a spokesman for Brownback’s office, said the senator personally called the case to the attention of FBI director Robert Mueller, arranged for the FBI to meet with Stauffer, and logged calls and meetings with several Costa Rican officials, including Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez.

“We’re concerned for the family of Shannon Martin and sympathetic to this tragedy,” Hotmire said. “Sen. Brownback hopes and will continue to work to see that those guilty of this terrible crime will be brought to justice.”

Hotmire said FBI agents were sent to Costa Rica to help with the investigation, though not in Golfito.

Brownback, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is in China until Wednesday. He was not available for comment.

In an Aug. 28, 2001, interview with the Journal-World, Brownback said Costa Rican authorities had sent hair samples collected at the murder scene to the FBI laboratories in Washington, D.C., for DNA testing.

None of the hair samples were found to belong to Cruz, Castro or Zumbado.

“Out of the 116 hairs that were sent to the lab, all but four turned out to be Shannon’s,” Stauffer said. “And none of four turned out to belong to the suspects.”

Stauffer said the release of the two suspects coming so close to Christmas and Martin’s birthday has been especially stressful.

“I hope I don’t sound like an irrational, emotional mother whose daughter’s been murdered,” she said.