My apologies for my January 1, posting on the murder of Czech student Alexandra Drbohlavova, 22, in that the British suspect that INTERPOL had been looking for who stabbed Ms. Drbohlavova some 15 times is Alfred Saunders, 20, not Alfred Mills.
Saunders, the son of wealthy London academics, was captured last Wednesday (December 28) as he emerged covered in blood from a tent in which Drbohlavova had been stabbed to death.
The 20-year-old is now in a high-security jail awaiting investigation for the gruesome murder at an idyllic rainforest owned by a British national.
COMMENT: Reportedly, INTERPOL disseminated an alert in November that Saunders was at large in Central America. It linked him to sex crimes, possession of explosives and a fatal assault. The alert said he was liable to commit offences against minors.
Although Costa Rican police began tracking Saunders' movements after Boxing Day when he crossed into Costa Rica from Nicaragua, he shortly thereafter turned up on the farm owned by Briton Nic Donati. Donati subsequently befriended him, as Saunders had no possessions or money and gave him a tent for the night. Not long thereafter, though, Donati heard screams from Ms. Drbohlavova (who had also been briefly staying on the farm as a volunteer) when Saunders killed her after stabbing her multiple times in the face, neck and chest.
Unfortunately, INTERPOL's "green alert" hit Costa Rica at a time when virtually everyone in Central America was celebrating Christmas throughout the country. Reportedly, Costa Rica's INTERPOL bureau chief recommended that Saunders be denied entry into Costa Rica, but Costa Rican immigration officials apparently ignored this recommendation.
In an apparent sequence of bureaucratic errors between agencies, immigration was splitting hairs by challenging that perhaps Saunders' checkered past of sexual violence, sadism and assault did not involve actual convictions. The INTERPOL report also characterized Saunders as being severely mentally ill.
Miss Drbohlavova, a philosophy graduate in Prague and a promising volleyball player had been undertaking further studies at Miami University and had travelled to Costa Rica to further her research during her Christmas break.
Clearly, Drbohlavova's promising young life was brought to an end as a result of not taking an INTERPOL alert seriously. Had that not been the case, Ms. Drbohlavova would be alive today.
Additionally, the British farmer indirectly contributed to the tragic events that led to Ms. Drbohlavova brutal murder by feeling sorry for a countryman he knew nothing about. It may never be known whether Donati had alerted Drbohlavova to Saunders' presence on the farm in another tent. If he did not, he should have.
