When American Brian Lynn Hogue decided to retire in Costa Rica, he probably never imagined he’d disappear into the blue one night after discovering people he had held in confidence had tried to cheat him out of his properties.

On March 8, 2016, four people were arrested in connection with his 2015 disappearance in Limón, Costa Rica. And a trial this week found two sisters guilty of his disappearance and death – his body was never discovered, said police.

“In May of 2015, these people realized that the American had registered in a corporation two properties in Paquera [near Puntarenas] and a Suzuki Grand Vitara. Upon learning of this, they created a plot to fraudulently annul the holding company,” explained the head of judicial investigate police Walter Espinoza.

“They falsified the property deeds, and paid off a notary to testify to the non-existent presence of Mr. Brian Lynn, and then registered with the Public Registry to transfer the properties into their names. When they realized that the American became aware of the fraud, they took the decision to assassinate him on June 2, 2015,” continued Espinoza in a press conference at the time of the 2016 arrests.

These facts were found true by the Limón criminal court in the Caribbean port town at a trial this month. When Judge Hernán Salazar read the sentences of 25 years each for sisters Ruth and Dayana Gaytán Ramírez Monday, July 17, one of the women’s reaction was to laugh.

 

A third suspect, surnamed Zuñiga, apparently also a sentimental partner of Ruth, was acquitted after judges were not able to directly link him to the events that occurred in June 2015 in Moín.

The Gaytán Ramírez sisters, when they found out Hogue had learned of the fraudulent transfer of his properties, brought him to a hotel in Moín, Limón the same day. Strong and convincing evidence showed that Ruth forced Hogue out of the hotel in the night, after which time he was never seen again, thus leading prosecutors to hold the sisters responsible for his death.

Ruth, who was 23 at the time of the fraud, apparently had taken up romantic relations with Hogue prior to the property fraud, which, according to local media reports, had caused Hogue’s American wife to divorce him and return to the U.S.

The sisters were introduced to Hogue by some workers who had helped him on his properties in Paquera, on the southern Nicoya Peninsula. The sisters were related to the workers; and after Hogue established a friendship with them, he invited them to live on his property in La Marina de Guapiles, said local media reports.

A fourth defendant in the case, surnamed Corrales Vargas, was sentenced to three years in prison for assisting with the fraud, but was able to get his term waived. Vargas, from Ciudad Quesada, falsified the documents to make the property transfers possible .

The police investigation to solve the murder involved four provinces – San José, Puntarenas, Alajuela, and Limón.