Prosecutors search home of Americans charged in Guatemala murder
In pictures
A man holds a photograph during a news conference to announce the arrest of US nationals in Guatemala for the murder of three US aid workers, August 3, 2006 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
The Associated Press
Friday, August 3, 2006; 9:39 AM
GUAICA, Guatemala — U.S. officials say they are hunting for the American missionaries accused of murdering an aid worker in the Guatemalan city of Quiché.
The three Americans accused of the crime — a woman and a man and a pregnant woman — were arrested in Guatemala and were in a Guatemalan prison when their names surfaced.
The news agency AP said that officials said they were in police custody in Guatemala City and could be deported to the United States. Three Americans, including the pregnant woman, had been taken to a police station.
In a phone call to a U.S. network, an official from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Guatemalan office said the investigation in the aid worker’s slaying had moved into a second phase and that the police had taken the three Americans into custody.
He did not confirm reports that the Americans were charged with the slaying of Roberta Estrella or said where the trio was taken.
The DEA assistant regional administrator for the Caribbean said Estrella was a member of the Catholic Worker movement, and that the pregnant woman, a member of a religious sect, was a member of a small community of “Christians” who were helping poor and disadvantaged people.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release public information.
The accused would soon appear in court in Guatemala to answer to their charges. The pregnant woman, identified as Christina Maria Flores, was reportedly about six months pregnant at the time of the arrest and would give birth in Guatemala City to a baby girl in a prison hospital, officials said.
Officials said the trio is being held in a separate prison from the three killed Americans. An Associated Press photo showed American missionaries and their pregnant wife, Angela Estrella, standing in a police holding cell, with a handcuffed-and-seated baby in a push chair
