Aspiring Mexican singer and music producer Maria Mathus Tenorio, 25, decided to go on a solo adventure around the world to share her music. Sadly, the first country she set foot in was also the last.
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The first destination on her itinerary was Costa Rica, where, unfortunately, her body was found face down on the beach of El Carmen, in the popular surf resort of Santa Teresa del Cobano, just a week after she had started her journey, said the Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica.
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According to the police, Maria was with a British woman she had met while travelling when they were assaulted by two men who tried to rob them.
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The British woman managed to escape and inform a security guard, asking for help. However, Mathus Tenorio was cornered and her attacker reportedly assaulted, raped, and then drowned Maria in the sea.
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Official sources report that two suspects have been arrested for the crime, identified as Esquivel Cerdas, who is suspected of attacking the Mexican woman and Benavides Mendoza, who is accused of rape.
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Maria posted a photo on Instagram before starting the trip with the message: "Today my trip starts after a long time wish to travel all around the planet alone.
“The time has arrived to be full of nature. Costa Rica, pure life".
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After the incident, hundreds of people, locals and foreigners participated in the “Marcha de Blanco” (Protest in White), in Santa Teresa, Cobano, Puntarenas, an event organized to pay tribute to María Trinidad Matus, which also had the purpose of raising awareness to battle insecurity and stop violence against women.
Jury selection began Tuesday in the retrial of Karen Read, less than a year after a judge declared a mistrial on charges that she was responsible for the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Read, of Mansfield, is accused of striking her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm outside of a house party in the town of Canton. Her attorneys have said that O’Keefe was actually killed by someone else, possibly another law enforcement agent who was at the party, and that she was framed.
Last year, the judge declared a mistrial after jurors said they were at an impasse and that deliberating further would be futile.
After the trial, several jurors came forward to say the group was unanimous in finding Read not guilty of the most serious charge, second-degree murder, and a lesser charge. Despite attempts by Read’s lawyers to get those charges dismissed, she will face the same counts as she did at her first trial. They also failed to have the entire case tossed, arguing governmental misconduct.
Read, who worked as a financial analyst and Bentley College adjunct professor before she was charged, faces second-degree murder and other charges in the death of John O’Keefe, who was 46 when he died. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.
After a night out drinking, prosecutors say Read, who is 45, dropped off O’Keefe at the house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.
As they did at the first trial, prosecutors will try to convince jurors that Read’s actions were intentional. They are expected to call witnesses who will describe how the couple's relationship had begun to sour before O'Keefe's death. Among them will be his brother, who testified during the first trial that the couple regularly argued over such matters as what Read fed O’Keefe’s children, and that he witnessed a 2021 fight the couple had in Cape Cod over how his brother treated her. The brother's wife testified that Read told her the couple fought in Aruba after she caught O’Keefe kissing another woman.
The defense is expected to portray the investigation into O’Keefe’s death as shoddy and undermined by the close relationship investigators had with the police officers and other law enforcement agents who were at the house party.
Among the key witnesses they will call is former State Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation but has since been fired after a disciplinary board found that he sent sexist and crude texts about Read to his family and colleagues. He also is on the prosecution's witness list.
A key moment in the first trial was Proctor’s testimony, in which the defense suggested his texts about Read and the case showed he was biased, and had singled her out early in the investigation and ignored other potential suspects.
They also are expected to suggest Read was framed, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home during a fight with another partygoer and then dragged outside. In the first trial, defense attorneys suggested that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Ahead of the second trial, the two sides sparred over whether Read's lawyers will be allowed to argue that someone else killed O'Keefe. Judge Beverly Cannone ruled Monday that attorneys can't mention potential third-party culprits in their opening statements but will be allowed to develop evidence against Brian Albert, a retired police officer who owned the Canton home, and his friend Brian Higgins. Lawyers cannot implicate Albert's nephew, Colin Albert, the judge said.
Soon after the mistrial, Read's lawyers set out to get the main charges dropped.
They argued that Cannone declared a mistrial without polling the jurors to confirm their conclusions. Defense attorney Martin Weinberg said five jurors indicated after the trial that they were only deadlocked on the manslaughter count and had unanimously agreed that she wasn’t guilty of second-degree murder and leaving the scene, but that they hadn’t told the judge.
The defense said that because jurors had agreed that Read wasn't guilty of murder and leaving the scene, retrying her on those counts would amount to double jeopardy. But Cannone rejected that argument, as did the state's highest court and a federal court judge. Defense attorneys have since appealed the federal ruling.
Prosecutors had urged Cannone to dismiss the double jeopardy claim, saying it amounted to "hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.” Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally argued that the jurors never indicated they had reached a verdict on any of the charges, were given clear instructions on how to reach a verdict, and that the defense had ample opportunity to object to the mistrial declaration.
The second trial will likely look similar to the first. It will be held in the same courthouse before the same judge, and dozens of Read's passionate supporters are again expected to rally outside. The charges, primary defense lawyers and many of the nearly 200 witnesses will also be the same.
The biggest difference will be the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. A former prosecutor and defense attorney who was brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, Brennan has represented a number of prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, and experts think he might be more forceful than Lally was in arguing the case.
Supporters of Karen Read gather prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Supporters of Karen Read gather prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A Massachusetts State Police officer talks with supporters of Karen Read, who gathered prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read, outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Supporters of Karen Read gather prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, walks towards court prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Supporters of Karen Read gather prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Prosecution attorney Adam Lally, right, arrives for jury selection for the trial of Karen Read at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Prosecution attorney Hank Brennan arrives for jury selection for the trial of Karen Read at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Karen Read arrives for jury selection for her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Karen Read arrives for jury selection for her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Karen Read arrives for jury selection for her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Karen Read arrives for jury selection for her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Supporters of Karen Read gather during jury selection for the trial of Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Karen Read arrives for jury selection for her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
