The third man accused of the murder of CIMA Hospital doctor Maria Luisa Cadeno, Dutch millionaire Harry Bodaan, is now under house arrest for the July 20 murder of Dra. Cedeno. On Friday, Bodaan surrendered his passport, relinquished his cell phone, has been barred from all travel, and will be wearing a “tobillera electronica”, a monitoring ankle bracelet. He has been forbidden to speak with the other two men accused in the murder. He is to remain under house arrest for six months.

Bodaan is the owner of La Mansion Inn in Quepos, and his arrest has rattled the expat community. Two other men have also been put in preventive detention accused of her murder, a Nicaraguan and a Tico who were living at the hotel at the time of the murder. Authorities are confident they have ample evidence against these three men, including footprints, scratches on bodies, and DNA found under the victim’s fingernails, and in bite wounds on her. She was left wrapped in a bloody sheet on the floor after her murder. She had defense wounds indicating she fought her attacker(s) valiantly. An autopsy report is pending.
According to Bodaan’s lawyer Jose Miguel Villalobos, the most incriminating evidence against his client seems to be bite marks left on the victim’s body, on her cheek and on her forearm. Only photos were taken of the bites, not more accurate dental impressions. The photos were taken well after the doctor died, all of which, according to Villalobos, renders the OIJ’s evidence invalid. He feels the truth regarding his client will be revealed after analysis of DNA, semen, skin, blood and fingerprints. An autopsy report has been completed, but not yet released to the public.

Dra. Cedeno died sometime between 4:48AM and 12:48PM on Monday, July 20th. Bodaan denies any involvement in the murder, and that he had ever met the doctor. She died at his hotel La Mansion Inn in Quepos. Bodaan also denies that he and one of the other accused murderers, Teodoro Herrera, were sexually involved, stating that Bodaan has had the same partner for eleven years.

Bodaan held a memorial service for Dra. Cadeno at his hotel, attended by his entire staff. He has made several statements to the press expressing his sympathy to Dra. Cadeno’s family, all of which seems to ring hollow given his possible involvement in her murder and the subsequent cover-up. Emerging details of this case continue to paint a salacious, tawdry picture of the activities of the three men accused, and possibly also of the goings on at the Hotel Mansion Inn.

Dra. Cadeno sadly joins other recent Costa Rican victims of femicide, including Carla Stefaniak, Eva Morero Ulloa, Arantxa Gutierrez, Maria Trinidad Mathus, and several others. A movement has been building around these tragic murders called Not One Less Woman CR, #NiUnaMujerMenosCR, and Dra. Cadeno’s family and friends are encouraging everyone wishing to see change to add their voices to this protest against women being murdered in Costa Rica

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