On Sept. 9, 2010, Steven Edelson of Novato was lounging under a tree on a beach in Costa Rica when he was shot in the head at close range and killed.
One year later, family and friends are still searching for the culprit in the horrific murder.
“I feel I owe it to him,” said the victim’s son, Noah Edelson of Novato.
Steven Edelson, a retired psychiatric counselor, musician and longtime resident of Novato’s Black Point neighborhood, had traveled a half-dozen times with his longtime girlfriend, Marsha Wachs, to the Caribbean coastal area near the town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. The couple had never experienced crime there before.
After breakfast on the day of the killing, Edelson, 65, walked a quarter-mile down the beach from the couple’s hotel with a guitar and a small backpack containing sunscreen, a book, a water bottle and a beer. His body was found later that morning.
In the year since, Costa Rican police have investigated the crime but there have been no arrests or suspects named.
“The location (playa Cocles) where the homicide occurred is very secluded and obscure,” Marisel Rodríguez Solís, spokeswoman for Costa Rica’s federal Judicial Investigation Organization, wrote in an email. “There were also no prints or details that were part of the crime scene that could serve as clues to capture a suspect.”
Noah Edelson, who has expressed frustration at the lack of progress in the investigation, has
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collected about $8,000 in pledged reward money but no tipsters have come forward. Police did investigate one man rumored to be involved but there was not enough evidence to implicate anyone, Solís said.
Meanwhile, Edelson has consulted with a private investigator and lawyers and is considering filing a civil suit against the rumored suspect, an action he hopes will lead to more evidence.
“The main thing that keeps on sort of ringing in my head is, I feel like Steve would have done a lot more for me,” said Edelson, 34, referring to his father by first name. “He would have been more persistent.”
For Wachs, a successful investigation would help end her speculation about exactly how her boyfriend was killed and who was responsible, she said.
“I think it would just close that wondering, but it may be that making up my own ending and my own story is probably going to be what it needs to be,” she said.
Family members and close friends in the Bay Area will hold a private memorial Saturday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Edelson’s death.
In the close-knit community of Costa Ricans and expatriates where Edelson was killed, homicide is rare but petty theft and other crimes have been rising, said Manuel Pinto, a real estate broker in the village of Punta Uva. After the homicide local residents and business owners pitched in to hire a security guard at the beach where Edelson was killed, he said.
“It used to be extremely taboo to even talk about crime with the fear that it would severely negatively impact our tourism,” said Pinto, a dual French-American citizen who has lived in Costa Rica for nine years. “It (the homicide) basically completely turned it around to the point where everybody has now gotten involved or invested in trying to find solutions.”
