SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico-PREGNANT tourist Sara Kuszak, who was brutally murdered while jogging last Wednesday (Feb. 4), has been said by her family to have been “a free spirit and a person who had a love for life”.
The 35-year-old Kuszak was visiting the island with her fiancé Cheshire McIntosh, and the couple planned to sail to the British Virgin Islands from Old San Juan after they were wed on March 22.
Unfortunately, plans for the five months pregnant woman and her fiancé were tragically cut short early Wednesday morning when she was abducted on an early morning walk by 36-year-old Eliezer Marquez Navedo.
Reports indicate that Marquez grabbed Kuszak while she was walking in Fajardo to a nearby marina where some friends were staying and shoved her into the trunk of his vehicle. The young woman was found about an hour later in a field with her clothes half torn off and her throat slit.
After being kidnapped, Kuszak made a call to an employee of the marina she was walking to and described Marquez’s vehicle. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were able to find Marquez later by tracking a signal from Kuszak’s cellular phone, which was in the man’s pocket.
Upon being arrested by local police, Marquez was found covered in blood that he claimed came from an injured horse he had been helping his brother care for.
The alleged attacker did not file a plea later when he was charged with two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping, and he does not have a lawyer at this time.
The prosecutor in the case, Francisco Sanchez, said that grievous crime would mean that there would be “no negotiations” for Marquez and he would have to face the maximum consequence of life imprisonment.
Authorities say his mother once slashed the throats of two children, but did not say if Marquez had witnessed the crime.
Kuszak’s mother, Joan Lang, told ABC News that she had been planning to stay with the couple to help them after their baby was born. She also said she was utterly shocked at the news of her daughter’s death.
“It's very surreal and I'm sort of in denial. I'm in disbelief to lose such a beautiful child. Her fiancé is just devastated. They met during a week away [five years prior] and have been together ever since,” Lang said.
Kuszak’s body will be flown back to her home in California where her mother is planning a memorial service.
Puerto Rico News