American woman tourist strangled
CATHERINE Johannet, the 23-year-old American backpacker whose body was found in a wooded area Isla Bastimentos, in Bocas del Toro, on Sunday February 5, was strangled after receiving a blow to the back of her neck with a blunt object.
A preliminary report from the Instituted of Forensic Science in Panama City indicated that she had been strangled with a piece of her own clothing and dragged to the wooded area where her body was found after an extensive search by the Civil Assistance authority (SINAPROC), National Police and volunteers.
She had arrived at the South Beach Hostel in Bocas Del Toro on Thursday February 2, and left to visit the Island and Red Frog beach soon after 10 am, and never returned.
The 5ft 11 young woman had traveled the world after graduating from New York’s Colombia University and had interned in Portugal and taught in a school in Hanoi, Vietnam for over a year.
Relatives arrived in Panama on Monday. A full scale police search for the killer is underway and the government has promised full support in the investigation.
