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 #1 Posted: 12 Aug 2010 05:58 am Post subject: Family stayed on case when woman vanished in Panama |
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William Dathan Holbert, aka "Wild Bill",
BY PATRICK M. O'CONNELL - Mary Wittmeyer gets the chills thinking about her conversations with the man who was among the last people to see her missing niece. The voice at the other end of the telephone line oozed arrogance and smugness. But the stories spun by the man now identified as William Dathan Holbert weren't adding up. "The conversations," Wittmeyer said, "were really creepy." Holbert was later arrested and accused of a string of murders in Panama, including that of St. Louis-area native Cheryl Lynn Hughes. Hughes' family believes the arrest is at least partially due to their diligence in connecting Holbert to her disappearance. Wittmeyer called him as part of an effort to track down Hughes, who had vanished from near her home in Panama. (more)
Hughes, a fun-loving woman who moved to the Caribbean resort area of Bocas del Toro about 10 years ago, wasn't the type to drop out of touch with family and friends. Hughes, 54, was equally popular with expatriates, tourists and locals in the village, where she handed out lollipops to children and hosted kids' movie nights — complete with bowls of popcorn. She frequently called and e-mailed her relatives in the United States. "When you talk about someone who would light up a room, she was the definition of that," said Dwayne Cooney, a family friend from Fenton.
Hughes owned a small hotel and built a home at Bocas del Toro. When she wasn't heard from for days, loved ones began to worry. Friends in Panama, and relatives such as Wittmeyer — who lives in Texas — began looking for her. Hughes was last seen at a party in the home of Holbert, known as "Wild" Bill Cortez. Over the course of three phone conversations, Holbert told Wittmeyer he didn't know what had happened to Hughes. He said the two had completed a business transaction, with Hughes selling her property and possessions to him before skipping town. Holbert also told Wittmeyer that Hughes had instructed loved ones to send him money and her personal possessions via air cargo.
Wittmeyer was welcome to come down to Panama to look for Hughes if she wanted, Holbert said, but added, "She's not here." Wittmeyer called the U.S. Embassy in Panama and eventually spoke with the FBI and Panamanian law enforcement about Holbert's comments. Weeks later, Hughes' body was found in a shallow grave on Holbert's property.
A few days after that, Holbert and his wife, on the run through Central America, were arrested. "It's a terrible tragedy, but at least he'll be punished and put away so he doesn't do this again," said Hughes' uncle, Tim Bolt, of St. Louis.
'A magnetic personality' - Wittmeyer was close in age to Cheryl "Cher" Hughes, and they grew up together. Wittmeyer describes their relationship as more like close sisters than niece and aunt. Hughes was reared in St. Louis and Sunset Hills. She attended Lindbergh schools before her family moved to De Soto, where she graduated from high school. She later lived in Crestwood before moving to Florida.
In Gulfport, Fla., she co-owned a successful sign company and began sailing, spending time in Panama during her travels. She liked it so much she decided to move there. "She was just a magnetic personality," said Mike Cooney, a close family friend. "She just loved people, loved life." Mike Cooney gave Hughes away at her wedding to Keith Werle a few years ago in Panama and had twice visited Hughes at her Panama home. "I miss her. I know everyone else does," said Cooney, 71, who now lives in Linn Creek, Mo. "The only satisfaction I have is that he messed with the wrong person, the wrong family, the wrong friends."
!Unlocking the case - Hughes was seen alive at the end of March, at a party at Holbert's. Hughes and Holbert were among a group of American expatriates who socialized and gathered weekly for parties. Holbert once owned a landscaping business in North Carolina but later sold the company and filed for bankruptcy before leaving for Panama, where he ran a hostel. Witnesses told Hughes' relatives that when the party in March wound down, Holbert sent the other guests away but coaxed Hughes to stay behind, saying the two had business to discuss.
As soon as her calls and e-mails stopped, relatives say, they started inquiring about her whereabouts and prodding local officials to investigate. As months went by with no word from Hughes, her friends and relatives grew increasingly puzzled. In July, they organized a meeting with Panamanian authorities. Wittmeyer, Werle, one of Hughes' sisters and a local freelance journalist who has written about the case laid out the facts they knew. It was enough to persuade authorities to reclassify Hughes' disappearance from a missing person case to a homicide investigation, Wittmeyer said.
In the meetings with Panama's attorney general and prosecutor, Wittmeyer described her conversations with Holbert. The family explained that Hughes would never drop everything and disappear without notice. They also told authorities Hughes never placed her customary call to her father on his birthday and would not have sent the strange mass text message friends received after her disappearance. And her home was left untouched, with no apparent paperwork detailing any transaction with Holbert.
Authorities seized on Holbert's statements about taking over the property, noting he had used similar terminology to the acquaintances of a man who had gone missing in November. A week after the meetings, Panamanian police got a search warrant for Holbert's property. When police swarmed the site, Hughes' family said, her Doberman pinscher, Jack, swam the narrow channel between Hughes' home and Holbert's land, running to and lying down on the spot where her body would be unearthed.
"There were too many people who loved her who were looking for her," said Dwayne Cooney, Mike's son and a childhood friend of Cheryl's. "That's pretty much what ended his string of terror." Panamanian authorities believe Holbert shot Hughes in the head and buried her on his property. Holbert and his wife, Laura Michelle Reese, were arrested July 26 as they tried to enter Nicaragua from Costa Rica.
Panamanian authorities have said Holbert and Reese are charged with murdering Hughes and another American, Bo Icelar, whose body was also found on the property. In addition, three other bodies, believed to be three missing Americans, were found on Holbert's property this week. Holbert has admitted to killing five people, authorities say.
All the killings, authorities said, centered on plots to take the victims' money and properties. Family and friends said that when Hughes disappeared, they didn't fathom the scope of a case that would stretch across international borders. "We knew something was wrong, but we didn't realize it'd expand this far," Dwayne Cooney said.
Hughes' family members are trying to take solace from the fact that their diligence ended with an arrest and answers. Sunday, the family will gather at Bolt's St. Louis home for a private memorial service to remember Hughes. "I'm sad for the whole world because we lost a beautiful person," Wittmeyer said.
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