Panama City, Jul 30 (EFE).- U.S. citizen William Cortez, the suspected murderer of two other Americans, arrived in Panama after being deported from Nicaragua, where he had fled after Panamanian authorities began searching for him in connection with crimes committed in the western part of the country.
Cortez and his girlfriend Jena Seana were taken to Panama in a Panamanian government aircraft guarded by two police officers that went to Managua Friday morning to bring back the couple, who are being investigated for the killing of at least two Americans here.
Nicaraguan army soldiers nabbed Cortez and Seana at a post on that country's southern border at the request of Panamanian authorities, who had warned other Central American countries of their possible escape.
Discovered last week in the patio of a hostel belonging to Cortez, located in the western Panamanian province of Bocas del Toro, were the body of U.S. citizen Cheryl Lynn Hughes and a skeleton that could be that of another American, Bo Icelar, according to Panamanian judicial authorities.
The same officials said that the decomposing body of Hughes, who disappeared in Bocas del Toro in March, was identified by DNA testing of family members who came here from the United States because of the crime.
The other remains could be those of U.S. citizen Bo Icelar, who went missing last December and who, like Hughes, arrived in Panama several years ago to live in Bocas del Toro, an area made up of several touristic islands.
Panamanian authorities are also investigating the disappearance of another American, his wife and son, and of two Indians who worked on Cortez's property.
The foreigners were taken from the airport under heavy guard to a National Police cell for questioning and to continue the investigations, according to official spokespersons.
