Guayaquil Ecuador: Japanese tourist murdered in apparent kidnap express, other tourist shot

Elcomercio.com reported … In the morgue of the Judicial Police of the Guayas, in the North of Guayaquil, remained until noon on Monday, December 30, the body of a Japanese tourist, who would have been the victim of a presumed Express kidnapping. The foreigner was found dead, with a bullet impact, on the sidewalk of the calle San Martín, between Tungurahua and Carchi, in the South of the city, around the 22:30 on Saturday, December 28. Personnel of the Consulate of Japan approached the morgue on December 29 Sunday afternoon to discuss the incident. Till this noon, no relative of the foreigner had approached to the amphitheatre police, as confirmed the forensic resident. The first investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office indicate that tourists took a taxi with a companion from a hotel in the North of the city. Geovanny Zambrano, Prosecutor who made the lifting of the corpse, said that the man was abandoned together with his companion. The woman, also Japanese, remains hospitalized in a care home, due to a gunshot wound. Inhabitants of the sector where it was abandoned the couple of tourists reported this Monday morning that foreigners were thrown from a yellow vehicle, while another car remained behind. “The girl was wounded, but we didn’t know what happened because they did not understand him. Then an ambulance came and they took it away,”said one of the residents of the sector. Prosecutor Zambrano said that, by its nature, the fact could set as a case of Express kidnapping. He mentioned that the couple might have been victimized within the vehicle. According to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Guayas, the 2013 closed with 177 complaints of express kidnapping in Guayaquil. The months where more complaints were reported for this offence were January and July, with 22 and 21 complaints, respectively. Read Article

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