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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2007 
Canadians Not Suspects in Slayings, Mexico Says
 Richard Brennan - Toronto Star
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| | Domenic and Nancy Ianiero |
Mexican authorities say two Thunder Bay women are not suspects in the brutal Ianiero murders and should have no fear travelling outside Canada.
"In no way is their liberty in jeopardy should they decide to leave Canada either to the United States, or Mexico or anywhere," embassy spokesperson Mauricio Guerrero told the Toronto Star yesterday.
"They should absolutely have no fear," he said.
Guerrero was responding to concerns by Cheryl Everall, 33, and Kimberly Kim, 32, who were staying at the same Mexican resort where Domenic and Nancy Ianiero were murdered Feb. 20, 2006. Kim and Everall were later accused by Mexican officials of the killings.
Guerrero said unequivocally the two women are not subject to warrant or arrest, but Liberal MP Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East), who has championed the women's effort to clear their names, said "Let's see them put that in writing then."
Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, attorney general for the state of Quintana Roo, blames the two single mothers in the slayings, insisting they are "assassins."
"This information (from the Mexican embassy) is absolutely not reassuring to us, it provides us with no official clearance. And even if this is the case then why the hell will Rodriguez not say that we are not the prime suspects," Everall told the Star.
Said Guerrero: "I cannot take back what the attorney general said. I can only tell you ... that they are neither considered suspects or assassins," and "I am absolutely positive (their names are not on a no-fly list.)"
He said the women are merely considered persons of interest because they were on the same floor of the resort where the Ianieros were slain and could have information that could help in the investigation. No one has been arrested for the double murder.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Marie-Christine Lilkoff said, "Canada has and will continue to raise this case at the highest levels of the Mexican government" until the perpetrators are brought to justice.
"The investigation remains in the hands of Mexican authorities and we are watching all developments very closely," she added.
With files from Canadian Press
Family of Slain Couple Sues Tour Operator
Peter Brieger, National Post
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The family of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against tour operator Sunquest Vacations after the Toronto couple was found murdered at a Mexican resort last year.
Sunquest failed to warn travellers that Mexico posed a higher risk for violent crime than some vacation hot spots and didn't ensure Cancun's Barcelo Maya Caribe Resort had proper security, the lawsuit alleges.
"[The Ianiero family] believed among other things that the hotel would be a safe environment for their wedding holiday," the claim says.
Sunquest - which sold a $45,000 wedding package to the victims' family and their son-in-law's relatives - allegedly "allowed and encouraged" the Mexican police, resort staff and its own employees to treat the family "as if they had committed the murders themselves."
The lawsuit claims damages for breach of contract, negligence and emotional distress.
None of the allegations has been proven in court. Sunquest declined to comment.
"This is not necessarily for financial recovery - it's more for the principle to make somebody take responsibility," said Marco Facecchia, the victims' son-in-law. "No dollar figure is going to bring my in-laws back or our lives back."
Found in their hotel room on Feb. 20, 2006, the couple's throats had been slit.
"[The plaintiffs] were traumatized by these sudden and violent events, and by being forced to witness details of the murder scene, its surroundings and aftermath," says the lawsuit, which was filed this month.
"They also became terrified for their own lives and safety, considering that the murderers remained at large and might still pose a threat to plaintiffs themselves."
The high-profile murder case saw Mexico's tourism industry take a beating in the Canadian media and sparked terse exchanges between the Mexican authorities and the family's Canadian defence lawyer Eddie Greenspan, who accused a prosecutor of lying about the case.
Mr. Greenspan said the Mexican authorities bungled the investigation.
He and the victims' family insist the murderer is likely Blas Delgado Fajardo, a hotel security guard seen with the victims before they died.
The man, who has been missing since the killings, was not scheduled to work the evening before the bodies were found.
The suspect's mother appealed to her 37-year-old son to turn himself in, saying he had likely snuck across the U.S. border.
Mexican authorities say they have asked the FBI's help in apprehending the man.
The lawsuit alleges that Sunquest failed to ensure the resort's guards were properly screened. A Sunquest official also refused to get up from his desk to act as interpreter during the family's discussions with police and the tour operator didn't insist the resort move them to different rooms immediately.
The hotel had poor security, including broken patio door locks on ground-floor rooms, which "showed evidence of tampering," and missing or "inoperable" deadbolts on doors, the lawsuit says.
"[The plaintiffs] were made to suffer frustration, anger and outrage by Sunquest's failure to provide the support reasonably expected and required," the lawsuit says. |
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