Mexico arrests man in beating of Canadian woman
A Mexican man has been arrested and will likely face an attempted homicide charge in the brutal beating of a Canadian woman at a five-star resort in Mazatlan.
Sheila Nabb, 37, was found unconscious last weekend in an elevator at the resort, where she was staying with her husband.
Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez, the attorney general of justice for the state of Sinaloa, confirmed at a news conference Friday that an arrest has been made in the case. The suspect is Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero, from Mazatlan. He was identified through a blood sample and a surveillance video, Gomez said.
Quintero has admitted responsibility in the attack, Gomez said, and is likely to be charged with attempted homicide. He must be brought before a judge within 48 hours of being detained.
Quintero would apparently visit tourist establishments and become friendly with foreigners, the attorney general said.
"This person was discovered by investigators," Gomez 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.
"We’re working on that at the moment because we have some information that suggests there was an act of aggression at an earlier date at the same hotel."
Nabb's family had thought she was too fragile to be moved from the hospital in Mexico where she was being treated. But her uncle, Robert Prosser, said she was flown back to Vancouver on Thursday night. 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.
On Wednesday, authorities said a surveillance video taken at the Mexican resort had become a key part of the investigation.
Gomez said the video showed a man making a kicking motion and then leaving the elevator where Nabb was found.
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."
She 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.
Nabb's husband was questioned by Mexican authorities in connection with the beating, her brother Paul Giles said earlier this week. But he was released when it "became apparent that he was innocent of any form of abuse," Giles said.
