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 News from Around Banderas Bay | April 2008 
Two Jailers Behind Bars, Judge Sought
 Howard Pankratz - The Denver Post
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| | David Parrish (Denver Post) | | |
The Mexican judge who ordered the release of a man under arrest in the killing of University of Colorado student David Parrish is being sought by Mexican authorities.
Puerto Vallarta prosecutor Guillermo Martin Diaz said the judge, his secretary and two jail employees are suspected of playing an active role in helping Alfonso Ramirez walk out of jail early Friday.
Diaz said officials want to know why the judge and his secretary issued a release order and the two jail employees let Ramirez go.
The city's public-safety director also has been suspended without pay during the investigation.
Parrish, 21, was killed Wednesday in Puerto Vallarta near a cruise-ship dock while trying to stop two men from robbing his mother, CU instructor Janet Graaff.
The suspects were identified as Ramirez and Daniel Vargas, both 30, according to Mexican authorities.
CU Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson said Parrish's death is an incalculable loss to the Boulder university.
"David was a geography major, a talented photographer and artist and a student with a strong commitment to understanding other cultures and peoples — in short, everything we could hope for from a CU student," Peterson said.
He described Graaff as a lecturer at both the Leeds School of Business and the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
He said the thoughts and prayers of the university are with Graaff and David's father, Stephen Parrish, as well as other members of David's family and his friends.
Parrish came to CU in the fall of 2005 after graduating from Boulder High School.
"He was a very idealistic, caring young man with a great interest in the world around him," said Bronson Hilliard, spokesman for CU.
Mary Dando, director of CU's study-abroad program, said Parrish was one of about 1,200 CU students who annually study abroad.
"His goals were to become a better global citizen," she said. "He was very well-traveled."
According to a Puerto Vallarta police spokeswoman, a transit employee who saw the shooting tried to help Parrish and alerted police, who apprehended the suspects.
Judith Bryan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said the murder of an American in Mexico is rare.
"To put this in perspective, we estimate at least a million Americans visit Puerto Vallarta every year," Bryan said. "Last year, the statistics were we had 12 cases of violence on Americans, and this is the first case of a fatal shooting that we are aware of ever in that city."
The Associated Press contributed to this story. Howard Pankratz: hpankratz(at)denverpost.com
Mexican Jailers Behind Bars
Rocky Mountain News & Wire Reports
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Two jail employees are behind bars in Puerto Vallarta in connection with the escape of a man accused of murdering a University of Colorado student, according to a Mexican newspaper.
Siempre Libres reported that 11 public officials, including police and administrative staff, had been detained initially in the investigation into how Alfonso Ramirez Sastre was able to walk out of the jail by swapping clothes with another inmate.
Nine of the officials were released after authorities determined they had nothing to do with the escape, the paper reported.
The Daily Camera in Boulder also reported Monday that a Mexican judge and his secretary were under investigation and that officials were looking for them, according to a prosecutor in Puerto Vallarta.
David Graeme Parrish, a 21-year-old geography major, was shot to death Wednesday near an ATM machine in Puerto Vallarta when he tried to stop two men from robbing his mother, Janet Graaff.
Ramirez is still at large. A second suspect in the slaying, Daniel Vargas Castaneda, remains imprisoned.
Graaff, a CU instructor in business and engineering, has declined comment.
On Monday, CU-Boulder Chancellor Bud Peterson issued a statement regarding Parrish's death:
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Ms. Graaff; with David's father, Steven; and with his family, friends and CU classmates. A loss of any one of our students is deeply felt here, but the loss of such a heroic, visionary student is nearly unbearable. Young people, like David Parrish, are the heart and soul of CU, and our community is diminished in incalculable ways by his loss."
CU officials offered counseling services to Parrish's classmates, many of whom only learned of his death this week as they were returning from spring break, said CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard.
Parrish, a third-year CU student, graduated from Boulder High School and attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in fine arts, before returning to Boulder. He had been named to the dean's list. He spent last spring in Morocco as part of a study abroad program.
A memorial service for David Parrish is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at St. John's Episcopal Church, 1419 Pine St., Boulder. |
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