For years, Costa Rica was sold as paradise – sunny beaches, rainforest zip lines, pura vida.
Now, a spate of murders and rising crime is piercing the country’s postcard-perfect image.
Californian surfing legend Kurt Van Dyke was found dead under his bed on Sunday in his beachside home in the quiet coastal town of Hone Creek. A sheet covered his head. A knife lay beside him.
Police say he suffered multiple stab wounds and showed signs of asphyxiation. His gruesome death has shaken the roughly 1.5 million Americans who visit the country each year.
The horrifying killing is the latest in a series of crimes involving Americans, along with two highly publicized accidental deaths – the teenage son of a former Yankees player and actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner of The Cosby Show.
Violent crime in Costa Rica has risen sharply in recent years, driven in part by expanding drug trafficking and gang activity. The Central American country recorded a record 907 homicides in 2023 and the numbers remain scarily high.
That trend worries hotel owners and travel agents who depend on US visitors. Americans make up more than half of Costa Rica’s tourists, traveling for yoga retreats, surfing, wildlife tours, and beach vacations.
Van Dyke’s killing was not an isolated event, and adds to a growing list of tragedies involving Americans in Costa Rica that are damaging the country’s idyllic and carefully built image.
Kurt Van Dyke, 66, was found dead under his bed with a sheet over his head in his home in Costa Rica on Saturday
Carla Stefaniak, a 36-year-old Venezuelan-American from Florida, was murdered while celebrating her birthday at an Airbnb in San José
In May 2025, 71-year-old Eshraghollah Vatani, a former civil engineer from Houston, was reported missing in Quepos. Days later, he was found dead in Cartago in what authorities described as an apparent robbery.
He had reportedly been carrying $18,000 in cash, and his stolen credit cards were used for thousands of dollars in purchases.
In March 2024, Florida resident Nicholas ‘Panda’ Davila traveled to Costa Rica for the Envision Festival in Uvita. His family says he was kidnapped and later murdered. A fundraiser described him as a ‘gentle giant’ and called his death suspicious.
In 2018, Carla Stefaniak, a 36-year-old Venezuelan-American from Florida, was murdered while celebrating her birthday at an Airbnb in San José.
A security guard was arrested and later convicted after investigators said he attempted to rape her and killed her when she fought back.
And in January of this year, four American tourists – three women and a man – were tied up during a home invasion at a rental property in Nuevo Arenal de Tilarán, Guanacaste.
Police shot and killed one suspect during a gunfight, with the horrifying incident ending with the family being rescued.
Shocking accidental deaths have also unsettled visitors.
In March 2025, 14-year-old Miller Gardner, son of former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, died of carbon monoxide poisoning while on vacation in Manuel Antonio.
Authorities have continued investigating possible safety failures at the Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort.
In June 2025, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned at Playa Cocles in Limón Province after being caught in a strong rip current while swimming with his young daughter.
In 2018, a bachelor party rafting trip on the Naranjo River ended in tragedy when rafts capsized, killing four American tourists and a local guide.
The US State Department currently lists Costa Rica under a Level 2 travel advisory, urging visitors to exercise increased caution.
Officials warn of a ‘notable increase’ in crimes targeting foreigners, including armed robberies at short-term rentals, break-ins, sexual assaults, and extortion schemes in which victims are forced to withdraw large amounts of cash.
Costa Rica is beloved for its palm-fringed beaches, yoga retreats and coffee plantation eco-lodges
Miller Gardner (second right) passed away on a family vacation in March at the age of 14
‘Petty crime is common throughout Costa Rica. Violent crime also affects tourists,’ the advisory states. ‘This includes armed robbery, homicide, and sexual assault.’
Online travel forums also feature warnings from visitors.
One woman visiting Puerto Viejo wrote that three different men followed her and her mother from different directions as they walked.
‘Three separate men were following me… and me and my mother literally had to run to our vehicle as they surrounded the car,’ she wrote. ‘It was extremely scary.’
Costa Rica’s $5-billion-a-year tourism industry is watching crime statistics and headlines anxiously.
Rubén Acón, president of the National Chamber of Tourism, has warned that popular areas such as Limón, Puntarenas, and Guanacaste risk becoming unsafe if crime is not controlled.
‘Violent incidents are up. More has to be done,’ he said.
President Rodrigo Chaves has pledged to address the country’s homicide problem. His government says it is increasing police presence in tourist areas and working to combat gangs and drug traffickers.
But progress has been slow. Homicide numbers have barely budged, falling to 876 in 2024 and 873 in 2025, official figures show.
Tourism Minister William Rodríguez has pushed back against claims of a crisis, noting that 93 percent of tourists reported feeling very secure during visits in 2025.
Still, early 2025 data showed a 7.3 percent drop in US visitors compared to the previous year. Officials attributed that to safety concerns and a weaker US dollar.
Hotel owners report more empty rooms. Tour operators say bookings are thinner. Some beach towns feel quieter.
That is especially true along the Caribbean coast, where Van Dyke had built his life.
Authorities say his 31-year-old girlfriend, Arroyo, was showering when two armed men broke into their apartment and held them at gunpoint.
Nicholas ‘Panda’ Davila was kidnapped at the Envision Festival in Uvita and then murdered, his family said
Van Dyke’s family blamed his death on an influx of crime into the nearby resort town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca – and Costa Rica in general
Malcolm-Jamal Warner with momager Pamela in 2015. He accidentally drowned in Costa Rica
Investigators say the attackers killed Van Dyke, tied Arroyo’s hands and feet with zip ties, beat her, and fled in the couple’s 2013 Hyundai Elantra.
His brother Peter, speaking from the family farm in Gilroy, California, rejected suggestions that Van Dyke had personal enemies. He believes the killing was a robbery linked to growing criminal activity in the region.
‘With the cartels and all the drug trafficking… a lot of these countries are cracking down on crime,’ Peter said. ‘So they’re leaving those countries and going to the neighboring countries where they can operate freely.’
He described Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast as a long-standing drug corridor that has become more violent in recent years.
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, the nearby resort town, has long attracted surfers and backpackers with its relaxed vibe. Now, residents talk more openly about robberies and break-ins.
‘I have friends that have traveled down and seen my brother in the past couple of years and they say they’re never going back,’ Peter told the Daily Mail.
Van Dyke was not just a visitor. He came from a well-known surfing family in Santa Cruz, California. He had owned the Hotel Puerto Viejo since the 1980s and was working on a real estate deal in Costa Rica when he died.
For decades, Costa Rica promoted itself as stable and peaceful – a democracy without a standing army and a leader in eco-tourism.
Van Dyke believed in that vision. He built a business there. He made it home.
Now his death has forced some Americans to reconsider their assumptions.
If someone with deep roots in the community could be killed in his own bedroom, many are asking a simple question: Who is truly safe?
