A Mexican man arrested in connection with the brutal beating of Canadian tourist Sheila Nabb was paraded before the media on Saturday.
Authorities trotted out Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero and he spoke to reporters. The state attorney from Sinaloa said Quintero accepted his guilt in a statement, admitting that he beat Nabb at a five-star resort in Mazatlan.
On Friday, state attorney Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez said they had arrested a man who was identified through a blood sample.
Nabb, 37, was found unconscious last weekend in an elevator at the resort, where she was staying with her husband.
Gomez said on Saturday that Quintero said that he and a Canadian friend had spent the early hours of Jan. 20 drinking heavily. When the beer ran out, they decided to head to Hotel Riu to keep drinking at the 24-hour bar there.
Quintero took a separate elevator in the hotel and on one of the floors, a female guest entered. The two argued apparently because the Mexican man would not let her leave. When she began to scream and call for help, the accused allegedly struck her until she was unconscious.
Gomez said Quintero would likely to be charged with attempted homicide. The suspect must be brought before a judge within 48 hours of being detained. There were no indications the victim had been sexually assaulted, the attorney general said.
The accused was known, according to police, to visit tourist establishments and become friendly with foreigners.
"This person was discovered by investigators," he said. "[The suspect] has the ability to speak English very well, and often stays in the hotels and mingles with the tourists. That is [the theory] we are working on and fortifying."
The suspect is believed to be the same person seen in a hotel surveillance video kicking something in an elevator. Authorities are trying to find out whether Quintero was involved in other attacks on tourists, Gomez said.
Robert Prosser, Nabb’s uncle, said she arrived in Calgary on Friday morning via air ambulance, according to the Calgary Herald.
Prosser said her family is relieved she is back in the country and thanked everyone for their prayers. Nabb, who was raised in Nova Scotia, now resides in Calgary with her husband.
Investigators were unable to speak with Nabb, who can't talk due to her injuries.
"The victim could not identify the suspect," Gomez told Friday's news conference. "[Thursday] night she was transported with injuries to the chin and jaw bone while under sedation."
Nabb was scheduled to undergo facial reconstruction surgery at the Mazatlan hospital where she was being treated, but the operation was delayed because she contracted pneumonia.
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