Golfito, Costa Rica ? When Jeanette Stauffer walked the road where her daughter was slain, it was much different from the scene where Shannon Martin died.

In August, new lights were placed along the service road Martin walked the May 2001 night the Kansas University senior was killed on the way to her host family’s house. The dense, tropical foliage has been cut back.

“We petitioned the government, and many people called and wrote for the lights,” said O’dette Porras, the mother of Martin’s host family.

This week, Stauffer, her husband, Brad Stauffer, and Topeka lawyer Pedro Irigonegaray retraced the path Martin took the night she was slain. They did it at midnight, to get a sense of what Martin, just days from KU graduation, might have seen or heard. They did it during the day, in case they missed some kind of clue at night.

After a frustrating year in which hope for justice in her daughter’s death has often been frustrated by an unfamiliar justice system and traditions, distance and other factors, Stauffer said she thinks a break in the case may be near, that arrests could soon be made and charges filed.

“I can finally relax and stop being so concerned, it’s in their hands now,” she said after nervously pacing Golfito’s courthouse lobby while Irigonegaray talked with investigators about the case. “Pedro can tell us very little, but has helped to move everything along. He has made a lot of progress.”

For the Porras family, too, progress has been too slow.

“It has been a year, I’m so frustrated they haven’t convicted anyone,” said Marciel Porras, Martin’s host father. The Porras’ relationship with Martin began during the spring semester of 2000, when she lived with them as a study abroad student at KU’s campus in Golfito. Last May, she was staying at their home during a brief research trip to collect rare ferns.

The Porras’ wait for justice has been made more difficult by the fact Martin was slain in their back yard. The family lives less than a one-minute walk, about 30 yards away, from where Martin died.

Local observations

At least two neighbors who live near the Porras’ house say they heard two screams the night of Martin’s slaying, but didn’t investigate. They thought the noise was just people having fun at the bar.

The Porras family has heard other disturbing information about the night of May 13, 2001.

“Shannon was dancing with Cruz’s boyfriend” that night at the bar, said O’dette Porras, referring to Katia Vanesa Cruz Murillo, the 27-year-old woman arrested in connection with Martin’s slaying.

Despite being jailed since last November, Cruz has not been charged and remains in a San Jose prison, unwilling to give investigators any information. Investigators do not think she acted alone and are looking into the possibility that at least two men also were involved.

Catalina Torres, former owner of the Golfito bar where Martin was last seen and who found her body, has information that could bolster that view. In an interview, Torres recalled events of that night.

“The bar was so full of people,” she said. “It was a nice place to go; it was open, I felt like it was secure.”

Torres said she remembers Martin being at the bar that night. “She smiled so nice at me,” Torres recalled.

She also recalls Martin dancing with someone not from the Golfito area.

A gruesome discovery

Torres didn’t notice when Martin left. But when Torres left about 2:15 a.m. with some friends, they made a gruesome discovery.

“One of my friends said something is strange over there,” Torres recalled. So she stopped her van, reversed, and directed its lights in the direction her friend was pointing.

“At first moment I had no idea what it was, and then I saw it, I saw a blood here and there, her legs were so white, I got crazy,” said Torres.

Torres alerted bar patrons and then the police.