Mother’s plea for help broadcast in Costa Rica

? In a desperate attempt to bring her daughter Shannon Martin’s killers to justice before a March 20 indictment deadline, Jeanette Stauffer jumped on a last-minute flight to Costa Rica and went on national television to offer an impassioned plea to the only known witness to come forward with his testimony.

Speaking with a voiced-over translation on the 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday newscasts, Stauffer, of Topeka, urged a taxi driver who was reportedly at the scene of the crime to cooperate with investigators, reminding him there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction. She thanked Costa Rican authorities for their hard work on the 22-month-old homicide probe, but she said she was nervous that without the key witness’s testimony, the case could fall apart next week.

“Our family is desperate and scared that this is not going to be solved,” she said.

Martin, a 23-year-old biology student at Kansas University, was visiting the southern Pacific port town of Golfito in May 2001 to collect fern samples as follow-up to her honors thesis on photosynthesis, which she had started while participating in the university’s Spring 2000 study-abroad program.

She was stabbed 15 times in the early-morning hours of May 13 along an unlit airstrip access road, about 30 yards from her host family’s home and a quarter mile from the Jurassic Bar, where she had just been dancing.

Primary suspect Katia Cruz, 28 — described by police as a vagabond with a history of drug abuse — has been detained in preventive custody since November 2001. Two additional suspects, Alberto Castro, 38, and Rafael Zumbado, 47, were arrested in July 2002 in Golfito but given conditional freedom five months later. Both suspects are being monitored by police, and neither is considered to be a flight risk.

Under Costa Rican law, prosecutors have until March 20 to request indictments of the suspects before Cruz would be released because of insufficient evidence. This week, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutors’ Office admitted that it was unclear what would happen to the case if authorities were unable to get indictments by March 20.

The taxi driver being sought by the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) is thought to have transported two male suspects from the crime scene to a nearby gasoline station, where they reportedly hosed blood off their hands. Police have the name and a picture of the taxi driver, but have been unable to track him down. He is thought to have fled to the capital city San Jose, in hiding out of fear of testifying.

Golfito Prosecutor Erick Mart–nez said police were patrolling San Jose in search of the witness, but Mart–nez declined to release the cab driver’s identity. Mart–nez admitted that the taxi driver’s testimony was important to the case, but said he would have to file his request for indictments with or without the benefit of the key witness.

Jeanette Stauffer, Topeka, is asking Costa Ricans' help in finding a cab driver who is thought to be a witness to events surrounding the May 2001 slaying of Stauffer's daughter, Shannon Martin, in Golfito, Costa Rica. Stauffer flew Wednesday to Costa Rica, where she was interviewed by TV journalists. Her plea was aired nationwide Wednesday night.

KU involvement

With the endgame rapidly approaching, KU last week sent two representatives to Costa Rica to meet with OIJ director Jorge Rojas and Vice President Lineth Sabor–o, who was director of the OIJ at the time of Martin’s slaying. President Abel Pacheco arranged the briefing at the written request of KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway.

The Costa Rican government “is committed to seeing the cruel murder of Shannon Martin solved as quickly as possible,” Pacheco wrote in his response to Hemenway.

After the three days of meetings, Jeff Weinberg, assistant to Hemenway, said he was pleased with the briefings and also convinced Costa Rican authorities were doing everything they could to solve the crime. He did, however, note that the prosecutor’s case against the two male suspects was much weaker than the evidence investigators had compiled against Cruz, who was linked to one of Martin’s earrings discovered in a local pawnshop.

With less than a week to go before deadline, prosecutors’ chances of getting indictments could hinge on whether Stauffer’s televised appeal succeeds in luring the witness out of hiding.

“I’d say we have, at best, a 50/50 chance of solving this case,” a tearful Stauffer said Wednesday. “I am really concerned and I keep thinking, where did I go wrong? I am not through with this yet, but at some point I have to realize there is nothing to be done.”