Costa Rica's OIJ seeks woman suspected in death of 74-year-old U.S. man in Playas del Coco

Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) has publicly sought help identifying a woman suspected in the death of a 74-year-old U.S. citizen surnamed Fleming, whose body was found inside a condominium in Playas del Coco. According to the OIJ's Liberia regional office, Fleming entered the Sardinal de Carrillo condo at about 4:50 p.m. on Sept.

27 with a woman who was later seen leaving without him; neighbors reported hearing screams coming from the unit before the body was discovered.

The OIJ has released a physical description to aid identification, saying the woman is light-skinned, slender, has black hair and stands about 1.60 meters (5 feet 3 inches) tall, and one outlet reported the woman was a San José resident.

Investigators are probing whether the victim's credit cards were taken and used after the incident; the OIJ said purchases and a hotel stay in Guanacaste made with the cards helped reconstruct part of the woman's movements. The agency has asked anyone with information to call its confidential hotline at 800-8000-645.

One English-language account said officials identified head injuries on the body that they believe were caused by blunt objects; that detail is presented by one source as part of preliminary findings.

Reporting across outlets is consistent on the central facts—the victim's age and surname, the Playas del Coco location, the OIJ's public appeal and the physical description released—but differs in some detail and emphasis.

QCOSTARICA included descriptions of transactions and a hotel stay in Guanacaste traced to the victim's cards and explicitly named the suspect as a San José resident; Tico Times focused on the timeline of the victim entering the condo at 4:50 p.m. and the OIJ's motive inquiry regarding credit-card use.

The New York Post reported the head-injury detail and added a more specific description of the woman's clothing at the time she was seen leaving; that clothing description does not appear in the Costa Rica-based accounts provided here.

At this stage no arrest or charge has been reported in the sources compiled here, and the OIJ's public appeal frames the matter as an active investigation seeking identification and location of a suspect.

The reconstruction of movements using card transactions is cited by Costa Rican reporting as one of the investigative leads that allowed authorities to narrow where and when the woman might have travelled after leaving the condominium. The OIJ's Liberia regional office is the named investigative unit in the reporting and is the point of contact for tips.

Readers should note that specific forensic conclusions beyond the reported presence of head injuries were described as preliminary in at least one account; the sources do not include a judicial filing, arrest report, or a completed forensic report in the public record provided.

The case's immediate operational details—who last saw Fleming, surveillance footage holdings, or whether the OIJ has identified specific locations tied to the card transactions beyond a hotel stay in Guanacaste—were not documented in the articles compiled here.