Nicaragua’s Supreme Court decided Monday that it will not extradite Michael Adrian Salmeron, the Nicaraguan man suspected of murdering 57-year-old U.S. expat, Dirk Beauchamp, his 38-year-old Costa Rican wife and three of their children over the Valentine’s Day weekend in the small community of Matapalo de Santa Cruz, in Costa Rica’s northwestern province of Guanacaste, in February.

The killings two months ago shocked Costa Rica and have come to be known as the “Matapalo Massacre.” Authorities in Nicaragua apprehended Salmeron on February 19^th, less than a week after the murders.

In Monday’s decision, Nicaragua’s Supreme Court upheld that country’s prohibition on the extradition of its citizens. Instead, Salmeron will face prosecution in Nicaragua, based on evidence provided by Costa Rican authorities, according to Nicaragua’s La Prensa.

Amongst the evidence against Salmeron is the testimony on March 30th of a 4-year-old girl who survived the massacre despite being stabbed in the head and named Salmeron as the person who killed her parents and siblings.

 

The Matapalo Massacre

Salmerón is suspected of the brutal murders of 57-year-old U.S .expat, Dirk Beauchamp, his 38-year-old Costa Rican wife, Yeimy Duran, and three children aged 12, 8, and 6 over the Valentine’s Day weekend in February.

All of the victims had suffered multiple stab wounds and blows from a machete, officials said. Two other children – the 4-year-old girl who identified Salmeron as the killer – and a 7-month-old infant were also harmed in the attack, but survived.

Salmerón and the female victim were involved in an extramarital affair, and actually lived with the woman in a makeshift dwelling behind the Beauchamp family home in Matapalo. Salmeron also fathered one of the woman’s children, according to Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).

 

A troubled home

Neighbors and those close to the Beauchamp family described a troubled home to the daily La Nacion in February.

Those interviewed said that Beauchamp suffered constant abuse from his Costa Rican wife, and had even filed domestic violence charges against the woman.

Neighbors and those close to the family said that the woman would routinely assault her husband, who was apparently in ill health, and steal cash from the man.

Residents said that Beauchamp arrived in the area about 13 years ago, and appeared to be well off financially. However, according to neighbors, the man’s wife began to blow through the family’s finances, spending large sums of money in area bars and nightclubs.

Residents said that the woman and her lover, Salmeron, would often times return to the home drunk and assault Beauchamp.

Meanwhile, according to one neighbor, the family’s financial situation deteriorated so badly that non-profit groups were helping to provide the family with food and school supplies for their children.

A brother of the deceased woman told tabloid daily Diario Extra in February that his sister met her husband while working as a prostitute at The Hotel Del Rey in San Jose’s red light district.  The couple had been married about 10 years, according to reports.