A Costa Rican woman detained as a suspect in last year's slaying of Kansas University student Shannon Martin has been charged with the homicide, an FBI agent told Martin's mother Friday morning.
Katia Vanesa Cruz Murillo, 27, originally was detained Nov. 20 in Golfito, Costa Rica, on a six-month preventative sentence.
It was not immediately clear when a trial would be set because Costa Rican courts and the Organization of Judicial Investigation, or OIJ, were still on holiday vacation Friday. A secretary at OIJ said the director and investigators were on vacation until Jan. 14. The U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica said it had no information about the homicide charges.
Martin, 23, was brutally stabbed to death May 13 after leaving the now-defunct Jurassic Bar to walk about 270 yards to her host family's house. The KU student was killed eight days before she was to graduate.
Martin's mother, Jeanette Stauffer, Topeka, spoke Friday morning with Junior Ortiz, a Miami-based FBI officer, and was told that Katia Cruz Murillo had been formally charged with killing Martin.
Stauffer said she didn't understand why the OIJ and U.S. Embassy did not have more information about the charges.
"What I am hearing is there is a possibility that others are involved," she said. "I don't know if they're close to getting those people."
An English-speaking spokesman for the OIJ, Martin Matamoros, told Stauffer through e-mail that he would not be able to give information about the homicide charges until he returns to work on Jan. 14. Matamoros is in the United States on holiday visiting in-laws, Stauffer said.
Wayne Russell, a special agent and spokesman for the Miami Division of the FBI, said it was inappropriate for him to comment on the Costa Rican investigation.
"Basically, that's not our investigation, so I'm not free to comment on that," he said.
On Friday, Stauffer also asked Kansas University to create a reward fund to help find other suspects. Stauffer said previous reports from the OIJ indicated two men also were sought in the death. She also said she believed that it would take more than one person to subdue her daughter, who was active in dance and gymnastics.
Though Stauffer has a standing reward offer of $10,000, she said it was clear a larger reward must be offered before anyone comes forward with information. She asked KU to put up $50,000 or more, which would only be given to an informant if the information led to an arrest and conviction.
Stauffer said a KU reward would "prove to Costa Rica and study-abroad students that they are serious about safety."
"There's got to be an informant," she said. "A lot of people were at the bar that night."
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