Kurt Van Dyke, 66, who owned a hotel in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, was found dead under his bed Saturday with a sheet over his head and a knife next to him, local reports say.
His 31-year-old girlfriend, identified only as Arroyo, was in the shower when two armed men suddenly stormed into the home, forcing the couple into a room at gunpoint.
Arroyo said the intruders zip-tied her hands and feet, assaulted her, and made off with several valuables — including the couple’s 2013 Hyundai Elantra — before fleeing.
The town where the killing occurred is mostly considered safe, and the incident sent shockwaves through the community.
“I am deeply saddened,” Roger Sams, president of Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, told Costa Rican newspaper La Nación in Spanish, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
“We’ve had a long period of calm and tranquility. … This shocks and saddens us because the Caribbean has been so peaceful.”
Van Dyke was well known both locally in Costa Rica and in California.
He spent decades running a modest hotel in Puerto Viejo and built a reputation as a standout surfer after arriving in the early 1980s to chase the thunderous Salsa Brava break — a run that earned him the nickname “King” along the Caribbean coast.
Surfing was in his blood. His father, Gene Van Dyke, was a Northern California pioneer of the sport, while his mother, Betty, helped blaze a trail for women surfers in the 1950s and ’60s.
Beyond the waves, the Van Dyke family name is rooted in agriculture, operating the longtime Van Dyke Ranch near Gilroy, known for its apricots and cherries sold at local farmers markets.
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