'The people say 'Why?' '

How things went from bad to worse in slaying of CU student in Mexico

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:05 a.m., April 5, 2008
Updated 02:56 p.m., April 6, 2008

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

A copy of the local newspaper, Vallarta Opina, published a photograph of Alfonso Ramirez Sastre, the alleged killer of 21- year-old CU student David Parrish. Ramirez was in the resort city with his wife and child. The headlines read: looking for 30-year-old dangerous fugitive from Guadalajara.

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Tourists walk by a police officer armed with an automatic weapon in Puerto Vallarta, which is described as "a safe city."

David Parrish

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

A pool of blood stains the road where David Parrish died outside a Puerto Vallarta furniture store.

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

A policeman stands guard in front of the municipal jail where the alleged killer escaped last week. The escape has become an embarrassment for Mexican authorities. The resort city of Puerto Vallarta gets almost 3 million visitors per year.

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Mexican authorities have charged Huber Silvo Cano, right, with assisting in the escape of Alfonso Ramirez Sastre. Silvo, 25, also faces drug charges after police said they found powder cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs in his home.

Rocky Mountain News

About 30 miles up the coast from this popular tourist town sits the small fishing community of Sayulita.

It's a place people go to get away from the spring break crowds and seven-day all-inclusive resorts to the south. Here colorful little restaurants surround el centro, the town's brick central plaza. Mexicans and people from the north intermingle, and along the white beaches, surfers praise the waves.

Last week, Boulder resident Janet Graaff and her son, David Parrish, bought their own little piece of life here, a vacation home previously owned by an elderly couple.

The small, intimate community with a hippie vibe was a good fit for a mother who once created a multiracial community in the "whites only" area of South Africa, and a well-traveled son who, his family said, saw "beauty in all things."

On Wednesday, March 26, after closing on the house, Graaff, a University of Colorado instructor, and Parrish, 21, a CU student, drove to Puerto Vallarta to buy furniture to fill it.

There, along a busy street across from the port where enormous cruise ships unload passengers, the unheard of happened.

Two men, strangers until a few days earlier, attempted to rob Graaff. When Parrish came to her rescue, one of the men shot him dead.

Days later, the case got worse.

One of the men - believed to have been the killer - posed as another inmate about to be released from jail. He walked free, and with the aid of another man, disappeared from town.

The escape of 30-year-old Alfonso Ramirez Sastre quickly became an embarrassment for Mexican authorities, who have launched a countrywide search to find him and an internal investigation into how he escaped. It also has them worried Parrish's death will scare away tourists - the Puerto Vallarta's lifeblood at almost 3 million visitors per year.

On Friday, the newly appointed head of public security sat behind a large wooden desk, typed notes spread out before him, and expressed deep regret to Parrish's family - Graaff, her ex-husband, Steve Parrish, and daughter Leslie Parrish.

He also said authorities are working day and night to capture the killer.

"We know that nothing can remedy the great loss they have suffered," said Armando Partida Zamudio, who was selected last week to replace the previous director while the internal investigation is conducted.

"We can't turn back the clock . . . but we are not going to rest until he is caught."

Following the money

Officials say Ramirez, the alleged killer, who lives in Aguascalientes, Mexico, was in Puerto Vallarta last week vacationing with his wife and child.

He met his accomplice in the killing, Daniel Vargas Castaneda, a few nights before the murder at a bar in the center of Puerto Vallarta, close to the hotel where he was staying with his family.

The two exchanged phone numbers and agreed to get together a few days later to pick up some women, police said. After meeting again that Wednesday afternoon, they decided they needed some money to cover the cost of their carousing.

Ramirez went to a cash machine inside a bank in the busy Plaza Marina, a popular waterfront stop for visitors who want to pick up groceries or buy souvenirs. In line in front of him he saw Graaff withdrawing a large amount of cash.

Police say Ramirez walked outside and told Vargas that the woman had money. They sat in Ramirez's Chrysler Avenger and watched as Graaff and Parrish went to eat at a Subway. When the mother and son got into their Dodge Alto and drove down the street, the men followed.

Graaff and Parrish pulled up to a furniture store and went inside, where they looked at new furnishings and chatted with a store clerk.

Around 4 p.m., Graaff walked outside to her car. She had a gray camera case strapped to her body. It contained her money, about $6,800, most of it in U.S. currency.

The men approached and demanded the bag. As they began pulling at it, Parrish saw what was happening and ran outside. The three men began fighting.

Police said Vargas handed Ramirez a .38-caliber handgun and told him to shoot. He pulled the trigger, firing one shot into the right side of Parrish's abdomen.

Parrish fell onto the street in front of the store, and less than 20 yards from the front door of a next-door hospital.

As Ramirez and Vargas ran toward their car, Graaff followed them, screaming, witnesses said.

A police officer patrolling on foot saw the commotion and called for backup. Within minutes more than 20 officers had descended on the scene and detained the two men, as several taxi drivers who had pulled over to help stood outside their cars, pointing at them, according to police and witness accounts.

Graaff identified the men at the scene. Under the front seat of Ramirez's car, officers found the loaded gun, missing just one bullet.

Though doctors and nurses came running outside the hospital to help, Parrish died within minutes.

It was the first killing of an American tourist in Puerto Vallarta on record with the U.S. Embassy, an official there said.

'Mistakes were made'

At the municipal jail, a sparse eight-cell building in a middle-income area east of the city's beaches and high-rise hotels, Ramirez and Vargas were placed with other inmates in cell eight, reserved for the jail's most serious offenders. But a fight broke out, and Ramirez was moved to another cell.

He shared cell five with at least four other men, including two teens who had been arrested earlier that day for stealing a bottle of tequila: Erick de Jesus Nava Romo, 18, and Julio Cesar Altamirano Rodriguez, 19.

Sometime between March 27 and early that Friday morning, when the two teens were to be released, Ramirez persuaded them to help him escape, saying he would pay each the equivalent of about $5,000, authorities said.

Ramirez exchanged clothes with Altamirano, giving him his pants and white T-shirt with blue flowers across the chest, and taking the teen's denim shorts and brown flip-flop sandals. They also swapped the blue pieces of paper they were given when they entered the jail as a receipt for their belongings.

Around 4 a.m., Nava and Ramirez, posing as Altamirano, were released from cell five. They walked to the guard's window, where Ramirez handed the guard the receipt with Altamirano's name on it.

According to public security's Partida, the two guards on duty didn't compare the signatures on the claim tickets.

They also didn't check the photos on file for the two men. Had they looked, he said, they would have seen that the 30-year-old Ramirez, with his shortly cropped hair, didn't resemble the other man, who was 19 and had his hair shaved in a Mohawk.

"Mistakes were made," Partida said. "They are not easy to confuse."

Around 7 a.m., another guard noticed Ramirez was missing and alerted his boss.

By then, Ramirez and Nava had made their way to the home of a 25-year-old drug dealer, Huber Silvo Cano, a friend of Altamirano's.

Silvo didn't know Ramirez, but he let Ramirez change clothes there, and gave him a razor so he could shave his head and eyebrows, police said.

The three men later drove in Silvo's pickup to Guayabitos, a beach town about 60 miles north of Puerto Vallarta.

Nava and Silvo were arrested this week after Nava went to police and said that after they left the jail, Ramirez threatened to kill him. The men are now being held on charges of assisting the escape. Silvo also faces drug charges after police found powder cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs in his home.

Silvo and Nava told police they left Ramirez in Guayabitos and returned separately to Puerto Vallarta.

Police have been unable to track his whereabouts in the week since.

'This is a beautiful place'

Mexican authorities this week repeatedly stressed the quick action they took after the screw-up - comments intended as much to show their regret for what happened as to blunt the bad press over it, particularly in the United States.

Almost immediately after the escape, 11 jail employees were arrested. Nine of them have since been released. The other two - the warden and a guard who let Ramirez go - are being held in the state prison.

If the investigation reveals corruption, the men will be prosecuted, Partida said.

He also listed several changes he's made at the jail since last week, including better lighting in the cells, repositioning security cameras and mandating that guards verify every inmate who is released is the same person photographed at the time of booking.

In another detention center Thursday afternoon, police paraded Silvo - the young drug dealer who'd given Ramirez a lift out of town - before the media as a symbol of their aggressive investigative work.

After an officer unlocked his handcuffs, Silvo was placed against a white wall. Officers then stepped back as photographers snapped pictures from all angles and reporters peppered Silvo with questions.

In an office upstairs, the local solicitor of justice, Guillermo Martin Diaz Prudencio, insisted people shouldn't be afraid to travel to Puerto Vallarta.

"It's a safe city," he said.

Near the area where Parrish was killed, a store employee also worried about the impact the murder might have on the city's reputation, even as cruise ships sat docked a few hundred yards away and tourists continued to lounge by their hotel pools, many unaware of what happened the week before.

"This is a beautiful place," he said. "A lot of Americans live in Puerto Vallarta. A lot of Americans love Puerto Vallarta."

The man, who would not give his name for fear he would get in trouble with his boss for talking to the media, also said he hopes police catch Ramirez soon. When they do, he wishes they could take him to the United States, so he could face the death penalty.

"The most important is an innocent man died," he said. "The people of Puerto Vallarta say 'Why?' . . . All the people say 'Why?' "

How it all happened

Mexican authorities say that University of Colorado instructor Janet Graaff and her son, 21-year-old CU student David Parrish, visited a cash machine at Puerto Vallarta’s Plaza Marina to withdraw money to go furniture shopping. Two men who witnessed the transaction followed the Coloradans to the furniture store, accosted Graaff, and shot and killed Parrish when he tried to intervene. A pool of blood stains the road where Parrish died outside the furniture store.

• April 5, 2008

  9:25 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Michael writes:

  Mexico is (and has been for decades) an ongoing criminal enterprise masquerading as a country. Drugs, corruption (political, governmental, law enforcement, corporate), institutional racism and caste system (Peninsularas & Indios), etc. This "country" is totally dysfunctional in almost every sense of the word. Millions have and continue to flee north to the USA because they cannot support themselves and their families. The border areas with the US are gang controlled and havens for drug and human smuggling. I do not see anything ever changing on this front. We are stuck with this on our southern border for the foreseeable future.

• April 5, 2008

  9:34 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  AWM writes:

  It's MEXICO! What else do you expect whe you go down there? That is the chance people take when they look for a cheap vacation. Why else would 39 million citizens risk being caught sneaking into America.. You can't really blame them.. I just wish they would go about it legally!

• April 5, 2008

  10:28 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  uncledave writes:

  Well, there is certainly a lot of Mexico bashing going around. I spend the winter in Puerto Vallarta and while there is certainly rampant corruption, plenty of drugs and prostitution there is very little violent crime in this most beautiful city. In fact, I feel much safer walking around in Puerto Vallarta than I do in many parts of Denver. Also, you'll note that the criminals in this case were not from P.V. Having said that I would offer that no one should be walking around with $6700 cash anywhere and if you choose to do so and someone tries to rob you - GIVE THEM THE MONEY.
  It has been my observation over the years, that, given the chance, many Mexicans will rob Americans. This is true in any country where the natives live in crushing poverty. I call it the "Robin Hood" mentality. We're rich and they're poor and they are just redistributing the wealth. However, most have little interest in killing you to do it - the inside of a Mexican prison isn't all that appealing.

• April 5, 2008

  11:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  JackieMC writes:

  uncledave
  I find your comments offensive and ignorant. If you would have read the story, you would see that the person killed was trying to protect his mother. And there you are blaming the victim and making excuses for the perpetrators. DISGUSTING.
  My prayers are with this family.

• April 5, 2008

  11:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  dilligaf writes:

  I'm going to start making a list of every place there is a killing and I will never go there again. WOW!!!! Where will I get to go? Better have someone go get my food and other needs because I have a feeling I won't be able to leave my house. You bigots out their are enough to make me puke.

• April 5, 2008

  11:52 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ONEman writes:

  Read what he said Jackie, he said the mom should have given them the money. It's obvious your just prejudice and don't see anything beyond your pig snout. The robbery was wrong bu they could have probably come out of it unscaved by not resisting.An idiot like you will try to prove a point to a criminal with a loaded gun 10 times outta 10. What a ditz.

  Nobody is blaming the victims or showing compassion for the perps. But there is such a thing as common sense(don't make yourself a target)and if you are robbed give em what they want. Obviously intelligence that you lack due to your prejudice.There are those who know how to act in different enviornments using caution and common sense. In any country Americans with money will be a target. Save your slobber Jackie. You don't know sh**.

• April 5, 2008

  12:26 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  The_Punnisher writes:

  And our lawmakers want to give AMNESTY to this kind of SCUM?

  Yeah that means YOU, SALAZAR!

  Wheres the fence?

  Time to seal the border and take a hard look at the INVASION that we have to deal with....

  Or plan on this to be the NORM in the North American Union...

  The United States will be no more...

• April 5, 2008

  4:08 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  sunshinestate writes:

  It' better in the Florida Keys!

• April 5, 2008

  5:18 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  SayulitaDavid writes:

  I am a Canadian living in Sayulita, just north of Puerto Vallarta, where this young man and his mother had just bought a house. I am truly appalled at some of the comments made on this forum. "What can you expect from a criminal populace...from citizens to leaders" "Mexico is an ongoing criminal enterprise masquerading as a country" "It's MEXICO. What else do you expect when you go down there?" "institutional racism" What??? Thank god there's no crime or institutional racism (remember New Orleans after Katrina?) in the good old U.S. of A. When I travel in the States, I feel I constantly have to look over my shoulder, while here in Mexico I and my family and friends feel completely safe. Thank you to those who responded with compassion, tempered though it was, and didn't tar all of Mexico with the same racist brush. What happened was a tragedy, but if you bothered to read the entire article, you would have seen that it is the first murder of an American in Puerto Vallarta in recorded history. Can you say that about your own cities? No, I didn't think so...

• April 5, 2008

  5:57 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  American100 writes:

  You mean it's the first murder of an American in PV the lying Mexican gov't has reported.

  After this terrible murder I was finally able to shame my parents into selling their mexico condo and I urge all of my friends to vacation else where.

  Last year they weren't listening, this year they are.

• April 5, 2008

  6 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jconder45 writes:

  uncledave- you're right on.

• April 5, 2008

  6:02 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  The_Punnisher writes:

  Hey Mr Great White North: You need a REALITY CHECK...

  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/us/...

  Your country is having the same problems.

  Hoser...

• April 5, 2008

  8:23 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  MM2 writes:

  I just got back from a wonderful vacation in PV, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

• April 5, 2008

  8:44 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  STOPUSAGiveaway writes:

  As long as A M E R I C A N taxpaying citizens are too stupid to see what they are looking at like the CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS via SPERM DONOR HEATHEN BREEDERS EXPONENTIALS for ILLITERATES and FUTURE SPERM DONOR HEATHEN BREEDERS--for auto welfare citizenship: the difference will end up being the end of the former.....
  The supply is unlimited and has been a hemorage or a plague upon the USA....
  If someone doesn't notice: they don't earn a living that is a contribution to the USA...or they would notice the filth, degredation; pollution human and toxic; and tax increases that get us less and less except more of the same.
  PUERTO VALLARTA was safe prior to a road being built when the rich had access by flying in....now its anyone's shot--especially those Americans who think they are important....
  There are a lot of missing Americans and ones who wake up without their organs...
  As far as DEAD USA in Mexico: we the people do not have to depart to risk our lives...and if it isn't our own psychos--its an ILLEGAL and predominantly one from Mexico since 2/3 of our population increase is directly from Mexico.
  STOP THE USA GIVEAWAY....

• April 6, 2008

  5:37 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  gwats writes:

  I won't be visiting Mexico any time in the next 50 years. If I'd like a taste of Mexico, I'll just ask my neighbor's wife to whip up some Carne Asada.
  As far as the murder of the CU student, look at it this way....Americans carrying around more $$$ than a honest, hard working Mexican can earn in a year in his own back yard in the killer's faces, showing off with their obvious wealth....I'm surprised more Americans don't get their heads bashed in more often. It may not have been a PC type of crime, but it does happen. There ARE places that Americans are not welcome. problem is, a lot of places right are here in the good ol' USA!
  We are arrogant and pushy sometimes and we are OUTRAGED when some third World nation puts a beat-down on one our Citizens?
  Come on America! stop and SMELL what you've been shoveling!
  The report says the Killing occurred during a robbery attempt. Was keeping $6800 worth your life in a third World Country rife with corruption? I doubt it.

• April 6, 2008

  6:34 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  GWM writes:

  RMN, you have been showing David Parrish's pool of blood for more than 24 hours. Can't you put another picture up? I think that was a very poor choice on your part. Perhaps, just a lazy one.

• April 6, 2008

  7:11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  Why go to Mexico to vacation at all? You can go elsewhere and be safer. Mexico doesn't want American's to know there is a crime problem in their resort cities. People are preyed upon all the time. Students go down their on Spring Break and their have been many robbed and raped. That's what happens when the alcohol flows freely. Most do not report it.
  As far as the mother carrying around a large sum of money. That was unforunate.I guess they don't take checks or debit cards.
  I ask the question though and we really have no way of knowing. If they had given up the money without a fight would the son still be alive? They could have just as easily shot him after getting the money.A tragedy all the way around.
  I feel horrible for the mother.

• April 6, 2008

  7:35 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Michael writes:

  Just another story today in another American newspaper about our great neighbor to the south. Look at those numbers of people killed - 8 police officers and 200 citizens in the last year killed in Juarez. This is happening all along the Mexcan border with the US. Mexico is a criminal haven - regardless of what SayulitaDavid says. No city in America comes close to this in terms of total gang and criminal control of a major city. NONE. Those that have vacationed in Mexico and not been a vicitm of crime, consider yourselves lucky. Personally, I would not venture there without a Kevlar vest, my 9mm Baretta, and if I could afford one, a bodyguard.
  http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_wo...

• April 6, 2008

  9:42 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  dadio161 writes:

  It cost a little more, but I think I will keep my vacation dollars in the U.S. and vacation in HAWAII.

• April 6, 2008

  11:39 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  sunshinestate writes:

  Re: "it's better in the Florida Keys"-A few years back Florida (the "Sunshine State") saw a rash of deadly crime towards "tourists" that was spawned from our own native south Florida population.The thugs sought out tourists (classic case of profiling!!)via rental cars (which then had a distinctive rental car tag)and other mannerisms-the point being that the thugs knew the tourists where probably unarmed.This fact is widely acknowledged.
  In Florida many residents are legally armed and can legally carry in the many sprawling state wildlife management areas,national forests and other public lands that compose a lot of Florida 'vacation land'.

• April 6, 2008

  1:15 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  RickyLee writes:

  PV is a great place. I recommend Victor's, on the marina. it's an
  awesome place to eat. We'll be going back to PV for sure, been there twice.

  By all this rationalization here, no one's going to Denver soon, or NYC, or Wash. DC, or.......(gasp) BOULDER!!!!!!

  There's been a lot more Americans killed in Boulder than PV. Face that fact.

  Anyone who's spent time on the RMN blogs here knows I'm dead against ILLEGAL immigration. But, I'd like to ask; of the people here bad mouthing vacationing in Mexico, how many actually have? I'm guessing very few to none. I'll bet nobody admits it, though,
  because there tends to be very few scroupulous individuals here.

• April 6, 2008

  2:55 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wow writes:

  “Officials say Ramirez, the alleged killer, who lives in Aguascalientes, Mexico, was in Puerto Vallarta last week vacationing with his wife and child.”…..

  Hmmmm, the crushing poverty that this poor man had to endure clearly drove him to mugging a woman and murdering her son. Must be the Robinhood factor like somebody else mentioned. The killer was so despondent about the wretched conditions he lives in, he sought comfort from a like minded individual at a bar….

  “ He met his accomplice in the killing, Daniel Vargas Castaneda, a few nights before the murder at a bar in the center of Puerto Vallarta”…. and the two noble, hard working family men agreed to meet regularly, like a support group….
  “The two exchanged phone numbers and agreed to get together a few days later to pick up some women, police said.” Good for them, poor souls!! Those starving families can be such a drag.

  “After meeting again that Wednesday afternoon, they decided they needed some money to cover the cost of their carousing.” That’s when they, having ditched their hungry families, they went in search of a cash machine, and found the victims. They then, being the noble hunters they are, stalked the victims for hours, and ultimately struck outside the furniture store. Rather than allowing the prey to escape when the going got tough, the brave, impoverished souls persevered, and killed to get that nookie cash. It was that important to them, bless their hearts.

  I don’t now what is more tragic. The senseless mugging and murder perpetrated by two horny, drunken miscreants, or the tearful excuses that I have read for their poverty mindset, or the racist ramblings placing blame on the corrupt Government of Mexico that warped their poor minds.

  There is no excuse, and there should be no understanding or pity…There is no blame to be placed except squarely on the “men” who did this, and the incompetent idiots at the jail who let Ramirez go.

• April 6, 2008

  3:06 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Michael writes:

  "There's been a lot more Americans killed in Boulder than PV. Face that fact." - RickyLee
  The more accurate comparison would be, how many vacationing Mexican nationals have been killed in Boulder, or Denver, or Vail or Aspen, or in the entire USA? Your comparison makes no sense. And yes, I have vacationed in Mexico - Cozumel for diving, Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan, and even Puerto Vallarta. I lived in San Diego for years and went to Tijuana, Ensenada, and Rosarita Beach for lobster dinners and cheap weekends filled with tequila. No more. I was a naive fool back then and after an encounter with black clad, Mexican army men who would not ID themselves - all carrying automatic weapons - on a beach in Cozuemel with my girlfriend many years ago, I ain't going back anytime soon. It is not if it will happen. It is simply when.

• April 6, 2008

  5:57 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  LarryMcL writes:

  My wife and I are two of the Americans who love Puerto Vallarta.
  We've gone there at least once a year every year since 1987, when we 'discovered' it.
  Your story points out the people who caused the original problems by trying to rob the mother are from far away from Puerto Vallarta.
  Even though the local politicians are corrupt, we've always felt safe. Jeanne had her carry on bag containing her passport, billfold and jewelry returned intact by a cab driver several years ago. She also left all her gold jewelry in the night stand of our timeshare one year, and it was all there waiting for us next year when we returned.

• April 6, 2008

  6:41 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Houstongolfnut writes:

  Why go to the trouble of going to Mexico? Just drive over to the nearest Denver WalMart. It's all there.