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TAMPA, Florida - Authorities in Costa Rica have located a body in their search for an American woman who went missing while on vacation.Ī spokesperson for Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department confirmed to ABC News that remains were found. Investigators studied surveillance footage from the area where Stefaniak was staying, near the Juan Santamaría International Airport in San Jose, and compared it to witness statements, Espinoza said.Florida woman vanishes during vacation in Costa Rica PHOTO: Miami resident Carla Stefaniak, seen here in this undated photo. The body also had a blunt force trauma injury to the head. (MORE: Body found as authorities search for American woman who went missing in Costa Rica)Īn autopsy conducted on Stefaniak determined the cause of death as "stab wounds around the neck and extremities," Espinoza said. Martinez had been in the country since June, Espinoza said. He was arrested after testimony he gave investigators didn't match surveillance footage or other witness statements, Espinoza. Martinez lived in the room next to Stefaniak's at the hostel, officials said. She traveled to Costa Rica on Thanksgiving Day to celebrate her birthday with her sister-in-law, April Burton, but decided to stay an extra day after Burton returned to Florida on Nov. 27, the night before her 36th birthday, her family told ABC News. He said Martinez is from Nicaragua and has an "irregular" immigration record. While Martinez has not been charged in Stefaniak's death, Espinoza called him "a suspect." On Tuesday, investigators in Costa Rica arrested Bismarck Espinoza Martinez, 32, in connection with Stefaniak's slaying. Investigators believe her dead body was removed from the apartment and dumped in a wooded area, about 1,000 feet away, officials said. (MORE: 'She was my baby,' says distraught father of American woman slain in Costa Rica)Ĭaicedo said he went to the morgue Tuesday night and confirmed his daughter's identity. An autopsy found that she was stabbed in the neck, that her neck was broken and that she suffered trauma to the head. Stefaniak's badly decomposed body was identified Tuesday through fingerprints and dental records, officials said. "I guess that Carla fought," Caicedo said, adding that he gathered from her injuries that the struggle with her killer "was long." Stefaniak's father, Carlos Caicedo, told ABC affiliate station WFTS-TV in Tampa that he believes his daughter died trying to defend herself.

Officials said that a preliminary assessment indicated that the killer's motivation was sexual, but additional tests are being conducted to confirm that theory.

Walter Espinoza, director of Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said investigators found traces of blood throughout the apartment where they believe Stefaniak was killed.

PHOTO: Costa Rican authorities have arrested Nicaraguan Bismarck Espinoza Martinez, 32, a security guard at the Villa Buena Vista hostel in San Jose, in connection with American Carla Stefaniak's disappearance. Stefaniak was killed in an apartment she was staying in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, and her partially-nude body was found covered in dirt nearby, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. The new details in the heinous slaying of Carla Stefaniak, 36, of Miami came a day after a security guard at the hostel where she was staying during her last night in Costa Rica was arrested in connection with her death. American woman's murder in Costa Rica may have been sexually motivated: Officials originally appeared on abcnews.go.comĪn American woman was stabbed to death in Costa Rica in what investigators suspect was a sexually motivated attack, officials said Wednesday.