GUILTY Costa Rica - John Bender, 44, shot to death, Perez Zeledon, 8 Jan 2010

[Dushi]

A story i know very little about, but sounds so interesting

 

[Dushi]

Original story resumes here: The story of U.S. financier John Felix Bender and his wife Ann Bender has received all sorts of press due to the intrigue and lunacy that surround their tale. The couple moved to Costa Rica and built a plush mansion and wildlife reserve in the jungle. But the wealthy pair started to lose their minds in the rain forest, and soon John Felix Bender was dead.



http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/03/18...h-in-costa-rica-in-love-and-death-in-paradise

 

[Dushi]

This story is being featured tonight on CNN, in Canada, at nine PM

It' s interesting, weird and I hope it can garner some interest.

It has it all, love, money, sickness, a great mystery.

Come on my smart sleuths, lets look at this one

 

[Dushi]

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/vide...ise.cnn&video_referrer=https://www.google.ca/

 

[Dushi]

A brilliant American financier and his exotic wife build a lavish mansion in the jungles of Costa Rica, set up a wildlife preserve, and appear to slowly, steadily lose their minds. A spiral of handguns, angry locals, armed guards, uncut diamonds, abduction plots, and a bedroom blazing with 550 Tiffany lamps ends with a body and a compelling mystery: Did John Felix Bender die by his own hand? Or did Ann Bender kill him to escape their crumbling dream?

http://www.outsideonline.com/photo-galleries/Paradise-Lost-John-Ann-Bender.html

 

[Dushi]

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/Love-and-Madness-in-the-Jungle.html

 

[Dushi]

The only witness to the shooting was Ann, who’d spent a dozen years as the yin to John’s yang. Together they’d built the tropical Xanadu that surrounded the mansion: a 5,000-acre wildlife preserve built on and around the highest mountain in the most forbidding rainforest in Costa Rica. They nursed each other through a shared battle with manic depression, and together, thanks to a dicey blend of extreme isolation, mental health challenges, and conflicts with enemies real and imagined, the Benders had apparently gone mad


http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/Love-and-Madness-in-the-Jungle.html

 

[Dushi]

Ann describes that period this way: “Every day, during the last six weeks, we would sit down and he would take all the medications we had and put them into piles and say, ‘OK, when am I gonna start taking the pills?’ There would be these suicide dress rehearsals. And if I went along with them, we got through the day.”


http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/Love-and-Madness-in-the-Jungle.html

 

[Dushi]

She was found guilty today.. sentenced to 22 years in prison...

I had no idea what the outcome would be

After watching this doc., I am still left with many questions

 

[Coldpizza]

Guilty of murder: Costa Rica court convicts expat Ann Patton of killing husband in 2010

This is the second time Patton has faced a murder trial over the incident, which occurred at the couple’s luxury jungle estate in Florida de Barú, Pérez Zeledón, in southern Costa Rica. A different court had acquitted Patton last year, but an appeals court ordered a new trial. The retrial began on Monday, May 19.

http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/05/27...pat-ann-patton-of-killing-her-husband-in-2010

Much more detail at link^^^

 

[newone]

Guilty of murder: Costa Rica court convicts expat Ann Patton of killing husband in 2010

http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/05/27...pat-ann-patton-of-killing-her-husband-in-2010

Much more detail at link^^^

ok....I'll bite ..... what's with the earplugs??? did she snore?? they were far from traffic....

"Prosecutors had presented the theory that Patton shot Bender, who was wearing earplugs and was found in a fetal position, while he slept."

 

[newone]

I would have really liked to have seen the documentary. It's a troubling story for sure. I wonder what sort of treatment she can expect in the next 22 years.

 

[Dushi]

Sounded like she was in very bad health when the shooting occurred .
Extremely thin, 80lb.? he carried her around.
Sores all over her body from injections that John was giving her.

He would have had to be sleeping at the time of the shooting, IMO, as i doubt there could be any struggle given her condition.
He was a big guy

 

[Dushi]

The court sentenced Patton to 22 years in prison for the crime. Judges Adolfo Calderón Bogantes, Cristian Calvo and Liner Zúñiga Herrera ordered Patton to be placed into nine months of preventive detention while the sentence is reviewed.

http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/05/27...pat-ann-patton-of-killing-her-husband-in-2010


What is preventative detention?
Is that like suicide watch?

 

[newone]

Seriously, in the first account of the story, AP said that her hubby was talking as she was drifting off to sleep and it was the laser site of the gun that caught her attention. That seems kind of 'strange' given that he was wearing earplugs I thought -- earplugs seem to me to be indicative of a person planning to sleep not of a person thinking of shooting himself.

 

[newone]

The court sentenced Patton to 22 years in prison for the crime. Judges Adolfo Calderón Bogantes, Cristian Calvo and Liner Zúñiga Herrera ordered Patton to be placed into nine months of preventive detention while the sentence is reviewed.

http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/05/27...pat-ann-patton-of-killing-her-husband-in-2010


What is preventative detention?
Is that like suicide watch?

seems that preventative detention is a fancy term for relieving you of your rights in Costa Rica - can be done prior to being formally charged (eek!) or while awaiting sentencing post criminal trial


http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-preventive-detention.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventive_detention

"The Republic of Costa Rica, where the 1998 Criminal Proceedings Code allows for a normal "preventive" imprisonment of 12 months if the person is considered a "flight risk", but if the case is declared "complex", it can be increased to up to three years and a half of imprisonment without conviction, or even more in some cases. In fact, in Costa Rica, as of 2006, over 4,000 people were serving terms of preventive detention"

 

[passionflower]

so interesting watched the story last night.................

 

[Dushi]

seems that preventative detention is a fancy term for relieving you of your rights in Costa Rica - can be done prior to being formally charged (eek!) or while awaiting sentencing post criminal trial


http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-preventive-detention.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventive_detention

"The Republic of Costa Rica, where the 1998 Criminal Proceedings Code allows for a normal "preventive" imprisonment of 12 months if the person is considered a "flight risk", but if the case is declared "complex", it can be increased to up to three years and a half of imprisonment without conviction, or even more in some cases. In fact, in Costa Rica, as of 2006, over 4,000 people were serving terms of preventive detention"

OMG!!

How does that pertain to Anne I wonder?
She was convicted and sentenced.. all within a week
Perhaps because she can appeal...

 

[Dushi]

There is a Vanity Fair interview that was written a few years ago.
A lot of detail about the jewels.
I am not sure if i posted it..
I read it yesterday at the hairdressers, to gather some background before last nights show

Posting it again, forgive me if I already did


http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Love-and-Madness-in-the-Jungle.html

 

[Dushi]

Anne bender stated that CR LE cleaned out the house, fridges, stoves etc.

I don't really understand the reasoning behind that.
I think I read that the legitimacy of owning the jewels was in question, or how they were brought into the country, but I can't find anything after the VF piece that mentions any charges other than murder.
The man was worth an estimated 70 million

Did LE treat it as ill gotten gains or was she robbed blind?