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 News from Around Banderas Bay | March 2008 
Suspect in U.S. Student's Death Abroad Escapes
 Associated Press
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| | Janet Graaff with her son, David Parrish. | | |
Puerto Vallarta - One of two suspects in the killing of a University of Colorado student who was vacationing in Puerto Vallarta has escaped from jail, police said Sunday.
The guard on duty accidentally released Alfonso Ramos Sastre Friday morning after he apparently swapped clothing with a cellmate, said a spokeswoman for the Puerto Vallarta municipal police who wasn't authorized to speak on the record.
Ramos and another man had been arrested in connection with the Wednesday shooting death of 21-year-old David Parrish of Boulder, Colorado, she said. Police did not name the second suspect but local media identified him as Daniel Vargas.
Embassy spokeswoman Judith Bryan said Parrish was shot when he resisted a robbery attempt.
The Denver Post reported that Parrish was a third-year student studying geography who graduated from Boulder High School.
Ramos struck up a friendship with his cellmate, who was arrested for allegedly robbing a bottle of wine, the police spokeswoman said. Ramos then offered the man about $5,000 to swap identities.
Ramos easily escaped after impersonating him, she said.
Municipal authorities suspended local Public Safety Director Victor Manuel Hernandez and questioned nine police officers in connection with the jail break, said a second police spokesman who couldn't be named. Seven of the officers were later released.
Jailbreaks are relatively common in Mexico, even in maximum-security prisons.
Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, alleged Sinaloa drug cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, escaped from federal prison in 2001 in a laundry cart by bribing guards.
CU Student's Suspected Killer at Large After Escaping Jail
Julie Poppen - Rocky Mountain News
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The mother of a University of Colorado student from Boulder was with him when he was killed last week during a daytime robbery in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
David Graeme Parrish, 21, and his mother, Janet Graaf, a CU instructor in business and engineering, had just left an ATM on Wednesday afternoon when they were confronted by two armed men, the newspaper Siempre Libres reported.
The man who police say fired the shot, Alfonso Ramirez Sastre, 30, later escaped custody after swapping clothes with another inmate and convincing a Mexican jail guard he was somebody else, the newspaper reported. He is at large.
A second suspect, Daniel Vargas Castaneda, 30, remains imprisoned.
Several jail officials - including the resort city's public safety director - and guards have been suspended in the wake of the escape, the newspaper reported.
Parrish, a junior geography major known for his artistic talents, was shot in the abdomen when he resisted the robbers.
Graaf teaches courses in sustainability and systems thinking in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Leeds School of Business. She once worked as a mediator in a Boulder County program that puts crime victims face to face with perpetrators in an effort to create healing.
She declined comment Sunday.
Parrish's father, Steve, left an answering machine message from him and his daughter for those who wanted to express their sympathies.
"We won't be returning phone calls for a while as we grieve the loss of our much loved son and bestest brother, David, recently," the father says on the tape.
CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard described Parrish as "a talented photographer" and "a guy who made a big impression on his professors and high school teachers."
"Our hearts go out to his mother, who is a member of our CU family, as was David," Hilliard said. "This is an awful reminder of how precious and tenuous life is. It's not something we would expect to happen in Mexico."
Counseling will be made available today to students who need it as they return to classes from spring break.
Parrish graduated from Boulder High School, then attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in fine arts before returning to Boulder. He spent last spring in Morocco in a study abroad program that emphasized culture and society.
A photograph he took, titled Saharan Skiing, was named one of the top 25 photos submitted by study abroad students last year.
When he submitted the shot, he wrote about riding camels in the Sahara desert to watch the sunset. The Moroccan program director proposed a race down the biggest dune.
"We enthusiastically accepted - feeling increasingly comfortable in our foreign situation and gleeful at our opportunity to be in this magical place," Parrish wrote. "This photo is that moment of our feet forever frozen in red sands of the Sahara."
"He's very well traveled," said Mary Dando, director of CU's study abroad program. "He wanted to study abroad in a part of the world he wasn't familiar with. He was very interested in world cultures and bridging cultural divides."
Parrish had been named to the dean's list in the College of Arts and Sciences.
A police spokeswoman in Puerto Vallarta said that a city transit worker saw the shooting and rendered aid to Parrish. The woman also alerted police, who caught the suspects in their car.
Siempre Libre reported that Ramirez persuaded an inmate who was in jail for stealing a bottle of wine to assist in his escape.
Ramirez promised the man $5,000 if he would swap clothes and identities with him. A guard let him walk out of the jail.
poppenj(at)RockyMountainNews.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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