November 6, 2025 • 32 mins
John Bender’s death soon becomes a cause celebre. But the woman at the centre of police suspicion is now the hospital. Ann’s psychiatrist is shocked at her physical and mental state. As the full story of the Benders’ isolation unfolds, prosecutors make their move and judges reach a verdict. But the Costa Rican authorities have a surprise in store.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The news of John Bender's death spread like wildfire around
Costa Rica. So did the revelation that Anne was the
prime suspect in his assumed murder. The couple who seemingly
had it all good looks, love and money had lost everything.
The question of what had happened and whether Anne had
(00:28):
pulled the trigger became a national pastime author Carol Vaughan.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Americans would have cocktail parties and argue over whether they
thought she was guilty or not, and what really happened there?
What happened to her, Jules? And it was hot.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It wasn't just hot in Costa Rica. The story went
global and.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
There were whole detective medicines that devoted issues to her,
saying that she digged and oh poor saying I don't
think she did it. I mean, everyone had an opinion,
and everyone commented freely.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And in dear Monte Valley itself, where the Benders had
built their enormous house, everyone was talking about it. Jesse,
their neighbor.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It was obviously the biggest news in the valley, and
it got around fast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
John Korvic, whose place was nearby, said it was all
so predictable.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
No matter how big the house is you're losing your mind.
Those two were up on top of that hill by themselves,
watching it rain with monkey screaming for days and days
and days and days.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Suspicions, theories, told you, sos, and plain old tittle tattle erupted.
Everyone had an opinion about what really happened on the
fourth floor of that huge house, made more fevered by
the discovery of hordes of precious stones. Carol Vaughn.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
They packed up sixteen suitcases full of loose jawels that
the Benners had just sitting around there, bedroom.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Diamonds, opals, rubies. Were they the trinkets of multimillionaires or
did they serve some other more nefarious purpose. John Corvick
had a theory, So I say.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I wanted to fly from here to there and bring
a couple million bucks. To be a hell of a
lot easier to bring a couple of stones, and it
is to bring a suit caseful cash.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And there were other stories, incredible and unfounded stories doing
the rounds.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
One thing I had heard that he had a tunnel
going to an underground bunker with full of.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Guns and things.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I don't know if that's true, but that was the story.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But at the heart of it all was anne. Had
this fragile, beautiful but desperately ill woman really murdered her husband?
Would she have been capable of carrying out such a crime,
And supposing she had, why, what would have been her motive?
Nicole Korlvic, I.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Don't know the truth of the matter, what really happened.
I heard that she was sick in that he was
trying to make some sort of concoction to cure her
with various medicinal plants.
Speaker 8 (03:12):
So if she had any moto that may have had
something to do with it, mind you. But on the
flip side of that, anyone who does that a little
bit nuts. I'm sure it's capable of killing the welch. Well,
you know who knows what happened out there?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, every angle and aspect of the story was chewed over.
The Costa Rican police convinced they had their culprit, were
putting together a case, and the woman at the heart
of it all was in hospital, very sick from exactly right.
(04:01):
Media and iHeart podcasts produced by Blanchard House. This is
Helen Heaven. I'm Becky Milligan. Chapter six, The Folly of Two.
(04:37):
We're in a brightly lit corridor, A few people wait
on plastic chairs. Poppy, my producer, tells the receptionist, we're here.
At the time of the murder, Anne was a patient
of psychiatrist doctor Lozano, one of Costa Rica's top experts
on bipolar disorder. He also treated the symptoms of lymes disease,
(05:01):
which can cause brain fog and increased anxiety and depression.
For Anne, it wasn't just a physical disease. The day
after John's death in January twenty ten, Jose Pizarro, the
Bender's head of security, rushed down to the privately run
Seema Hospital in San Jose to be seen by doctor Lozano.
(05:24):
She was in a terrible state. It's rare that doctors
talk about their patients, but doctor Lozano agreed to speak
to us in his private clinic. What he had to
tell us about Anne would throw a completely new light
on her relationship with John. He was running a bit late,
but we were eventually shown into his consulting room late
(05:46):
in the afternoon.
Speaker 9 (05:49):
Hello Touch.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
He'd had a busy day and had a somewhat long
suffering expression on his face, but still he welcome us
with a wave. Of his hand. His gray hair was
slicked back. He had a neatly trimmed beard and mustache,
and despite being weary, he had a friendly bedside manner
about him. I got a sense that Anne would have
(06:13):
been reassured by his presence.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You're English, yes, me? Motherel was British, really yeah, Suffolk
from a hill, Suffolk.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I asked him to tell me about the day Jose
rushed Anne into hospital after John's death.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
I was in my office and I was told that
she was on her way. Pizarro was wringing her and
I went to emergency ward and she was sitting on
a wheelchair, very very thin. I had not seen her
in several months. She was very very thin for Lakita
(06:54):
who say Spanish, and very very thin. Frail did her
because she was in shock. And I was told that
her husband had died. And that was as far as
there was all information again at that moment.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
But he did notice something, something very strange.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
She was with a shutter on into the cardigan on,
but what I could see of her arms were bumps.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
All over her arms were bumps and saws, and some
were infected badly. He couldn't work out what could have
caused them. They crossed his mind that she might have
been bitten by some kind of insects in the jungle.
Whatever the cause, he was horrified by Anne's appearance, emaciated
(07:47):
and in a kind of flat state, just staring blankly
into space. What did you actually think when you saw
her looking like that?
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Coming from a psychiatrist and I'm going to see is deep?
I felt sorry for her. I felt I said, poor thing.
I mean, poor poor girl. I mean, what has happened.
Not only her husband just passed away. She's full of bombs.
(08:17):
She's psychotic, terrible.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Before he could find out what had caused all the
bumps and saws, she needed treatments straight away for her
most acute symptoms. What do you do as a psychiatrist
to help her.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
In that case? I tried to comfort her, which was
just me trying to be nice.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
What did you do?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
I put her on the medication immediately?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
But what had caused those bumps? Doctor Lozano would make
sure to find out later. She was put on a
cocktail of medications. She was in a very bad way.
She hardly spoke. Dr Lozano barely recognized her. Hearing all this,
(09:08):
I can't help but think back to that comment as
Valdo Rojas, the head of staff, made about Anne, that
the vibrant woman he first met in two thousand slowly vanished.
Ten years in the jungle with John had taken such
a toll on her physically, she'd declined, but also mentally.
(09:30):
I wondered what she'd been like when Dr. Lazano first
met her, compared to his desperately sick patient in the wheelchair.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
She was a nice, pretty young woman, pretty and had
two sides to her.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
On the one hand, there was Anne in tattered worklothes
in the jungle, looking after the animal sanctuary. Then there
was Anne, the urban sophisticate, in designer clothes, every bit
the cosmopolitan daughter of an international financier.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
She was taking care of the animals in the south,
and then she would come back. She would come to
San Jose, and they used to travel a lot. Then
the employees told me that she used to go around
with boots and jeans, and you know, very into the
farm life. But then here she would be very.
Speaker 10 (10:30):
Elegant, fancy lady, very nice person, a little silent, I
would say, she would she would.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
She was not a big talker. She was like, you know,
careful into conversations.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Here we were speaking to Anne psychiatrists of many years,
and yet pinning down the real Anne has proved different.
Cult So we've waded through articles and interviews and spoke
to old friends. Who is Anne Bender and could her
background provide a clue to whether she would ever be
(11:13):
capable of murder. In an interview for CNN, Ken Patton,
Anne's brother reflected on a younger Anne, saying she'd always
(11:34):
had a very strong bond with animals. They both grew
up in Rio de Janeiro, and Anne was very popular
and outgoing at school. He said she hung out with
the cool crowd and says that it was in her
preteens that things changed. Something was weird, something was different,
(11:54):
she said. As we know later she would be diagnosed
with bipolar disorder, a condition which can cause huge mood
swings with episodes of extreme highs and extreme lows. She
said that it could make her rather impulsive and might
explain decisions like moving to Virginia from the city at
the drop of a hat. We did manage to contact
(12:17):
one old friend who didn't want to do an interview,
but gave us the following information which we've had voiced
up by an actor.
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Ian attended the American International School in Lisbon. She attended
EFACA University, with at least a year on their London campus.
She lived and worked in Baltimore post graduation. We were
really good friends and we kept in touch until she
met John and got married. Then she cut off all
ties with everyone, including me, everyone except her family.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
We asked doctor Lozano about his sessions with Anne prior
to John's death. Did the relationship seem happy? He thought so.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
I was very proud of John.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Did you get the feeling that John was the love
of her life?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Yes, yes, matter of fact like at that time they
were very close together. When I say at the time,
because I was helping her for years.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
But what really worried Dr Lozano was those bumps on
Anne's arms. What had caused them? Eventually she opened up
and told him it would be a startling revelation.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
I asked her, what are these bumps? He said, well,
John was injecting me.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yes, John was injecting And.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
I said, oh what she was he injecting you the medication?
Because I was I had not prescribed injectable medication. He
was trying to help me with my polarity, and he
was giving me clear spring water injections under my skin
(14:09):
to heal me.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
This admission would shock her psychiatrist, doctor Lozano, and change
how he saw the dynamic of the couple.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Said, and are you serious? Yes? Why not? I remember
that main conversation gave me the impression that she was
not in her right state of mind.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Did it also make you wonder what state of mind
John was in when he was injecting her and what
he was trying to do?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I wrote and in the file, in the emergency file,
that Ann was psychotic at that moment, and that John
must have been psychotic too.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
We asked as Valde about the injections.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Not going in.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Yeah, and I never saw him do it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I never saw Anna with any punctures in her skin,
never at all. Was this why only John and Anne
were allowed on the fourth floor? Was this one of
their secrets? Anne would later say in interviews that she
allowed John to inject her. She told Outside magazine that
(15:26):
he was experimenting on her. She added, there was nothing
non intense about John's and my relationship. The saddest part
is Anne's bumps were infected. Far from saving her, they
were making her sicker. What had started as a pursuit
to learn about natural medicines in the jungle had become
(15:47):
a dangerous delusion about river water and its healing powers
and perhaps John's ability to find a cure where modern
medicine had failed. Discovering this reveal yielded something to doctor Lozano.
He diagnosed Anne with a rare disorder called folly adeu
(16:08):
folly of two, also known as shared psychotic disorder, a
condition in which two people with mental illnesses reinforce each
other's psychosis. They become more extreme together.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
They alienated the professionals that they dealt with. They didn't
have strong friendships, They only had each other. They had
what her therapists called fully adeu, where you exacerbate the
other person's craziness. And it was just doomed.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Just don't we spoke to author Carol Vaughan about the injections.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
She was sick, sick, sick. When she was admitted to
the hospital after he died, she was barely alive. She
was just hanging on by a thread. So putting myself
in that situation, I would have killed them.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Anne continues to deny any involvement in her husband's death.
Some people, including Carol, started to wonder could suicide and
cold blooded murder both be wrong? Was John's death in
fact a form of self defense?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
If he didn't kill her, then j had to kill him.
I think that she saved her life. Frankly, I don't
think of that she killed him. I think she saved
her own life.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Self defense was never considered in court. Anne always stuck
to her story she did not kill her husband. Over
the six months Anne was in hospital, doctor Lozano kept
her close eye on his patient, sided.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Her and sat with her to talk for about an
hour daily for the six months, trying to help her
overcome the grief of losing John and going through all
of that. Because I felt terrible for her, I mean,
such a nice person, I mean, a young woman. My
(18:22):
Latino side came out and said over Desita, I mean
it was something I felt.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It was unfair, Papa Sita, that means poor little thing.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Remember how uncomfortable it was that she had a one
policeman all the time sitting at the door of her room.
That was disgusting. I thought it was absolutely unnecessary. But
is the law?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
But however sick Anne was. She was the police's prime
suspect in her husband's murder. They posted an officer outside
her hospital room twenty four to seven. What did you
talk about all those times? Do you remember any one
particular conversation?
Speaker 5 (19:08):
A lot about John. He used to ride his four
wheeler and go to see the sunset from the hill
and then come back. There was more that kind of conversation.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Doctor Lozano noticed after a few months, Anne was improving.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
She was more relaxed, and she had more friends, and
she was not a bardy girl, but she was more
social and still always talking about John.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And when she talked about him, did she tell you
that she had a feeling he might do this, or
that there were any hints, or that.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
He might take his life. Yes, she was always concerned
about John taking his life.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
At the end of six months, Anne's health had improved.
She was able to walk, she gained weight, her bipolar
disorder had stabilized. She also had the support of her brother, Ken,
who was renting an apartment in San Jose. But Borachyanne
was not as she'd left it. The police had emptied
(20:23):
her beloved home. Everything was gone. No tiffany lamps, no TV,
no microwave, and no staff and told us Valdo she'd
never stay in the house ever again. Then there were
rumors about the gems. They'd all gone too. The story
(20:43):
went that the police had collected them all and packed
them into suitcases.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Someone else will tell you the story that a lot
of that didn't quite make it into the suitcase.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
In other words, there were rumors of people helping themselves
to Anne's gems at the crime scene. Anne also had
another problem, money and her lawyer, Juan Alvarez. John and
Ann had put ninety million dollars in a trust and
given Alvare's power of attorney, which means he effectively controlled
(21:15):
their fortune. It's reported he'd stopped Anne's credit cards and
payments and hadn't paid the staff at the house. It
became legally very messy and complicated. Alvarez has denied all
the allegations against him, telling CBS that they were bogus.
He didn't respond to our requests for an interview, and
(21:37):
despite the huge sums involved, the situation with the trust
would soon be the least of Anne's problems, because more
than a year after John's death, the police had finally
concluded their investigation. On August the twenty fourth, twenty eleven,
Anne was arrested and charged with first degree murder for
(22:00):
killing her husband, John Felix Bender. A Costa Rican English
newspaper said the case had all the makings of a
tropical Gothic tragedy. Stressed, you think she was underwhen she
was suddenly arrested for the murder of her husband. I mean,
what did.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
You It must have been terrible for her.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Did you talk to her about it?
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Yes, we talked. She was at the beginning silent, very
silent in a way that I once asked her, and
she didn't want to hurt nonbody.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
It would be a further year before Anne would be
in court. With the help of her family and a
few friends, she assembled her defense team. She was also
supported by their loyal former head of security, Jose Pizarro,
the Colonel, as John used to call him. He saw
it as his duty to protect Anne. Now that John
(22:58):
was dead. He was voted to her.
Speaker 11 (23:01):
We used to talk and she always asked, from my opinion,
what she could do about the accusation and why she
was accused, And she talked about it with me every
single day. The whole process had been an orthodox I
thought this couldn't happen, but it did. She was always
worried about what might happen next. She was worried, angry,
(23:24):
and frightened of being involved in the death of her husband.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
It was very hard for her.
Speaker 11 (23:29):
She couldn't understand how they could accuse her of killing
her husband. She got very sad from then on she
struggled with all of this.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
As for the workers in the house, everything changed after
John's death. As Valdo Rojas, their maintenance man, had worked
for the Benders for ten years. It was a good job.
Many of the other staff had also been there for
five years or more. They had become part of the
Bender's dream. But the dream was over and the future
(24:04):
looked very uncertain. Bouracheyaane, the house on the hill, which
had been alive with activity, fell silent. Gone were the
guards and the gardeners who helped create the nature reserve,
gone too. The vets who looked after the sick animals
and John's orchids were left to wither and die. All
(24:27):
was quiet, apart from the sounds of the jungle. Anne's
trial began on January the fourteenth, twenty thirteen in the
courthouse in Perez Zeladon. It would be heard by three judges.
(24:47):
They don't have jury trials in Costa Rica. Anne was
accompanied by her family and a few friends. John's parents,
Paul and Margy, didn't go.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
No, we thought about it, But it's probably my fault
for not going. I didn't know what the hell I
had to do there. What purpose could I serve? I
didn't know what happened. He was gone, She had family
was going to take care of her. So I did
(25:20):
hire a lawyer there to try to tell me what
was going on.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Their son's death had been devastating. At the time, they
felt it was the right decision not to attend the trial.
They stayed in touch with and throughout and gave her
their full support. I think they felt a sense of helplessness.
Their son was dead. Nothing they did now would bring
him back. But now Paul wonders if they made the
(25:48):
right decision.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I probably should have worked harder with that, and it
probably would have been better for me to go down
and get to know the people and talk to them
and figure out what was when. But what difference would
it make?
Speaker 5 (25:58):
It? Nothing I could do about it if.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It's happened, and it's such a difficult thing as well.
I meant break.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I think the main thing that I should say about
that is we really were very supportive of Air because
we wanted her to stay in control of the property,
and we didn't blame her for anything, so we did
everything he could to help her.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Paul and Margie talk easily about most things, laugh too,
but when the subject of John comes up, especially talking
about when and how he died, their voices become so quiet,
and I noticed they reach for each other's hands and
hold on tight.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
You can't do anything about it, And so what would
be the point of going and fighting down in Costa Rica?
But I think what good would that thing to do
is that we'll cause misery. We couldn't help him anymore
and seemed to know what she was doing.
Speaker 12 (27:06):
Ampa news broke that a millionaire heiress was being tried
for the murder of her husband, and camera crews moved.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
In Racerospoza La mortezrouspos John Felix Bender.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
In val Three years after John's death, Anne was in
the dock in a Costa Rican court being tried for
first degree murder. The case was heard almost entirely in Spanish.
The prosecution didn't offer a theory about motive. Reportedly, the
court recorded that she acted without any apparent motive, but
(27:47):
clear intent to end the life of the victim, John
Felix Bender. The prosecution's focus was on the crime scene.
Remember the air plugs. Prosecutors asked why John would go
to bed with those ear plugs in if he was
intending to kill himself. Then there was the gunshot wound
(28:07):
that was on the back of John's head on the
right hand side, whereas John was left handed. None of
this added up to suicide. The prosecution claimed, how did
a left handed person take that shot and how did
the bullet casing end up in those positions. The defense,
(28:28):
on the other hand, argued, this was all a horrible mistake.
John was suicidal and this was the result of years
of planning. Friends confirmed this, and so did emails John sent.
The defense claimed Ann tried to stop him but couldn't.
Speaker 6 (28:47):
They said.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Anne's testimony lasted seventy minutes. She spoke with passion about
her life with John, their loving relationship. She told the
call why they had come to Costa Rica and what
they had hoped to achieve and all of this she
delivered in fluence Spanish. She spoke from the heart, winning
(29:10):
over the press and many who hadn't heard her speak before.
In the media, there was sympathy for her and what
she'd been through. Why was our government taking this poor
woman to court? They asked. All the Benders wanted was
to help Costa Rica. The prosecution and defense rested. The
(29:30):
judges retired to consider the evidence. The case had lasted
six days, from January fourteenth to January the twenty first,
twenty thirteen. Just before the verdict, Anne addressed the court
one more time. An actor is reading her statement. It's
been three years of hell and I feel listened to
(29:53):
and protected by the justice system, and I would like
to thank you. The verdict was read out in front
of a packed courthouse full of TV cameras and spectators
fascinated by the case. Based on the evidence presented, we
have unanimously decided the defendant is acquitted, not guilty. Anne
(30:23):
must have felt huge relief. She could now get on
with her life and grieve her husband in peace. Except
that's not how this story ends. In Costa Rica, there
is no limit to the amount of times you can
be tried for the same crime. Prosecutors wanted a retrial
(30:47):
and that's what they got. Anne would be back in
court for a second time on trial.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
For murder people.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yes, they thought this rich American is never going to jail.
It just won't happen here. Cos Striker wouldn't do that
to a woman. KOs Striker wouldn't do that to an American.
They dropped the bomb on her.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
That's next time on Helen Heaven. You've been listening to
Helen Heaven from Exactly Right Media and iHeart Podcasts produced
by Blanchard House, hosted, written and produced by me Becky Milligan.
(31:35):
The producer and co writer is Poppy Damon. Music is
by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanell, and Toby Mattamol. The
sound Recordistant Head of Sound and Music is Daniel Lloyd Evans.
The lead sound designer is Vulcan Kiseltook. The artwork is
by Vanessa Lilac for Exactly Right Media. The executive producers
(31:57):
are Karen Kilgarreth, Georgia Hartste and Danielle Kramer, with consulting
producer Lilly Ladderwig and associate producer Jay Elias. The creative
director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer
and head of Content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Griselle.
(32:18):
Listen to Helen Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
The news of John Bender's death spread like wildfire around
Costa Rica. So did the revelation that Anne was the
prime suspect in his assumed murder. The couple who seemingly
had it all good looks, love and money had lost everything.
The question of what had happened and whether Anne had
(00:28):
pulled the trigger became a national pastime author Carol Vaughan.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Americans would have cocktail parties and argue over whether they
thought she was guilty or not, and what really happened there?
What happened to her, Jules? And it was hot.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It wasn't just hot in Costa Rica. The story went
global and.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
There were whole detective medicines that devoted issues to her,
saying that she digged and oh poor saying I don't
think she did it. I mean, everyone had an opinion,
and everyone commented freely.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And in dear Monte Valley itself, where the Benders had
built their enormous house, everyone was talking about it. Jesse,
their neighbor.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It was obviously the biggest news in the valley, and
it got around fast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
John Korvic, whose place was nearby, said it was all
so predictable.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
No matter how big the house is you're losing your mind.
Those two were up on top of that hill by themselves,
watching it rain with monkey screaming for days and days
and days and days.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Suspicions, theories, told you, sos, and plain old tittle tattle erupted.
Everyone had an opinion about what really happened on the
fourth floor of that huge house, made more fevered by
the discovery of hordes of precious stones. Carol Vaughn.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
They packed up sixteen suitcases full of loose jawels that
the Benners had just sitting around there, bedroom.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Diamonds, opals, rubies. Were they the trinkets of multimillionaires or
did they serve some other more nefarious purpose. John Corvick
had a theory, So I say.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I wanted to fly from here to there and bring
a couple million bucks. To be a hell of a
lot easier to bring a couple of stones, and it
is to bring a suit caseful cash.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And there were other stories, incredible and unfounded stories doing
the rounds.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
One thing I had heard that he had a tunnel
going to an underground bunker with full of.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Guns and things.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I don't know if that's true, but that was the story.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But at the heart of it all was anne. Had
this fragile, beautiful but desperately ill woman really murdered her husband?
Would she have been capable of carrying out such a crime,
And supposing she had, why, what would have been her motive?
Nicole Korlvic, I.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Don't know the truth of the matter, what really happened.
I heard that she was sick in that he was
trying to make some sort of concoction to cure her
with various medicinal plants.
Speaker 8 (03:12):
So if she had any moto that may have had
something to do with it, mind you. But on the
flip side of that, anyone who does that a little
bit nuts. I'm sure it's capable of killing the welch. Well,
you know who knows what happened out there?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, every angle and aspect of the story was chewed over.
The Costa Rican police convinced they had their culprit, were
putting together a case, and the woman at the heart
of it all was in hospital, very sick from exactly right.
(04:01):
Media and iHeart podcasts produced by Blanchard House. This is
Helen Heaven. I'm Becky Milligan. Chapter six, The Folly of Two.
(04:37):
We're in a brightly lit corridor, A few people wait
on plastic chairs. Poppy, my producer, tells the receptionist, we're here.
At the time of the murder, Anne was a patient
of psychiatrist doctor Lozano, one of Costa Rica's top experts
on bipolar disorder. He also treated the symptoms of lymes disease,
(05:01):
which can cause brain fog and increased anxiety and depression.
For Anne, it wasn't just a physical disease. The day
after John's death in January twenty ten, Jose Pizarro, the
Bender's head of security, rushed down to the privately run
Seema Hospital in San Jose to be seen by doctor Lozano.
(05:24):
She was in a terrible state. It's rare that doctors
talk about their patients, but doctor Lozano agreed to speak
to us in his private clinic. What he had to
tell us about Anne would throw a completely new light
on her relationship with John. He was running a bit late,
but we were eventually shown into his consulting room late
(05:46):
in the afternoon.
Speaker 9 (05:49):
Hello Touch.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
He'd had a busy day and had a somewhat long
suffering expression on his face, but still he welcome us
with a wave. Of his hand. His gray hair was
slicked back. He had a neatly trimmed beard and mustache,
and despite being weary, he had a friendly bedside manner
about him. I got a sense that Anne would have
(06:13):
been reassured by his presence.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You're English, yes, me? Motherel was British, really yeah, Suffolk
from a hill, Suffolk.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I asked him to tell me about the day Jose
rushed Anne into hospital after John's death.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
I was in my office and I was told that
she was on her way. Pizarro was wringing her and
I went to emergency ward and she was sitting on
a wheelchair, very very thin. I had not seen her
in several months. She was very very thin for Lakita
(06:54):
who say Spanish, and very very thin. Frail did her
because she was in shock. And I was told that
her husband had died. And that was as far as
there was all information again at that moment.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
But he did notice something, something very strange.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
She was with a shutter on into the cardigan on,
but what I could see of her arms were bumps.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
All over her arms were bumps and saws, and some
were infected badly. He couldn't work out what could have
caused them. They crossed his mind that she might have
been bitten by some kind of insects in the jungle.
Whatever the cause, he was horrified by Anne's appearance, emaciated
(07:47):
and in a kind of flat state, just staring blankly
into space. What did you actually think when you saw
her looking like that?
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Coming from a psychiatrist and I'm going to see is deep?
I felt sorry for her. I felt I said, poor thing.
I mean, poor poor girl. I mean, what has happened.
Not only her husband just passed away. She's full of bombs.
(08:17):
She's psychotic, terrible.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Before he could find out what had caused all the
bumps and saws, she needed treatments straight away for her
most acute symptoms. What do you do as a psychiatrist
to help her.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
In that case? I tried to comfort her, which was
just me trying to be nice.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
What did you do?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
I put her on the medication immediately?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
But what had caused those bumps? Doctor Lozano would make
sure to find out later. She was put on a
cocktail of medications. She was in a very bad way.
She hardly spoke. Dr Lozano barely recognized her. Hearing all this,
(09:08):
I can't help but think back to that comment as
Valdo Rojas, the head of staff, made about Anne, that
the vibrant woman he first met in two thousand slowly vanished.
Ten years in the jungle with John had taken such
a toll on her physically, she'd declined, but also mentally.
(09:30):
I wondered what she'd been like when Dr. Lazano first
met her, compared to his desperately sick patient in the wheelchair.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
She was a nice, pretty young woman, pretty and had
two sides to her.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
On the one hand, there was Anne in tattered worklothes
in the jungle, looking after the animal sanctuary. Then there
was Anne, the urban sophisticate, in designer clothes, every bit
the cosmopolitan daughter of an international financier.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
She was taking care of the animals in the south,
and then she would come back. She would come to
San Jose, and they used to travel a lot. Then
the employees told me that she used to go around
with boots and jeans, and you know, very into the
farm life. But then here she would be very.
Speaker 10 (10:30):
Elegant, fancy lady, very nice person, a little silent, I
would say, she would she would.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
She was not a big talker. She was like, you know,
careful into conversations.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Here we were speaking to Anne psychiatrists of many years,
and yet pinning down the real Anne has proved different.
Cult So we've waded through articles and interviews and spoke
to old friends. Who is Anne Bender and could her
background provide a clue to whether she would ever be
(11:13):
capable of murder. In an interview for CNN, Ken Patton,
Anne's brother reflected on a younger Anne, saying she'd always
(11:34):
had a very strong bond with animals. They both grew
up in Rio de Janeiro, and Anne was very popular
and outgoing at school. He said she hung out with
the cool crowd and says that it was in her
preteens that things changed. Something was weird, something was different,
(11:54):
she said. As we know later she would be diagnosed
with bipolar disorder, a condition which can cause huge mood
swings with episodes of extreme highs and extreme lows. She
said that it could make her rather impulsive and might
explain decisions like moving to Virginia from the city at
the drop of a hat. We did manage to contact
(12:17):
one old friend who didn't want to do an interview,
but gave us the following information which we've had voiced
up by an actor.
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Ian attended the American International School in Lisbon. She attended
EFACA University, with at least a year on their London campus.
She lived and worked in Baltimore post graduation. We were
really good friends and we kept in touch until she
met John and got married. Then she cut off all
ties with everyone, including me, everyone except her family.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
We asked doctor Lozano about his sessions with Anne prior
to John's death. Did the relationship seem happy? He thought so.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
I was very proud of John.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Did you get the feeling that John was the love
of her life?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Yes, yes, matter of fact like at that time they
were very close together. When I say at the time,
because I was helping her for years.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
But what really worried Dr Lozano was those bumps on
Anne's arms. What had caused them? Eventually she opened up
and told him it would be a startling revelation.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
I asked her, what are these bumps? He said, well,
John was injecting me.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yes, John was injecting And.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
I said, oh what she was he injecting you the medication?
Because I was I had not prescribed injectable medication. He
was trying to help me with my polarity, and he
was giving me clear spring water injections under my skin
(14:09):
to heal me.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
This admission would shock her psychiatrist, doctor Lozano, and change
how he saw the dynamic of the couple.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Said, and are you serious? Yes? Why not? I remember
that main conversation gave me the impression that she was
not in her right state of mind.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Did it also make you wonder what state of mind
John was in when he was injecting her and what
he was trying to do?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
I wrote and in the file, in the emergency file,
that Ann was psychotic at that moment, and that John
must have been psychotic too.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
We asked as Valde about the injections.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Not going in.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Yeah, and I never saw him do it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I never saw Anna with any punctures in her skin,
never at all. Was this why only John and Anne
were allowed on the fourth floor? Was this one of
their secrets? Anne would later say in interviews that she
allowed John to inject her. She told Outside magazine that
(15:26):
he was experimenting on her. She added, there was nothing
non intense about John's and my relationship. The saddest part
is Anne's bumps were infected. Far from saving her, they
were making her sicker. What had started as a pursuit
to learn about natural medicines in the jungle had become
(15:47):
a dangerous delusion about river water and its healing powers
and perhaps John's ability to find a cure where modern
medicine had failed. Discovering this reveal yielded something to doctor Lozano.
He diagnosed Anne with a rare disorder called folly adeu
(16:08):
folly of two, also known as shared psychotic disorder, a
condition in which two people with mental illnesses reinforce each
other's psychosis. They become more extreme together.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
They alienated the professionals that they dealt with. They didn't
have strong friendships, They only had each other. They had
what her therapists called fully adeu, where you exacerbate the
other person's craziness. And it was just doomed.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Just don't we spoke to author Carol Vaughan about the injections.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
She was sick, sick, sick. When she was admitted to
the hospital after he died, she was barely alive. She
was just hanging on by a thread. So putting myself
in that situation, I would have killed them.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Anne continues to deny any involvement in her husband's death.
Some people, including Carol, started to wonder could suicide and
cold blooded murder both be wrong? Was John's death in
fact a form of self defense?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
If he didn't kill her, then j had to kill him.
I think that she saved her life. Frankly, I don't
think of that she killed him. I think she saved
her own life.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Self defense was never considered in court. Anne always stuck
to her story she did not kill her husband. Over
the six months Anne was in hospital, doctor Lozano kept
her close eye on his patient, sided.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Her and sat with her to talk for about an
hour daily for the six months, trying to help her
overcome the grief of losing John and going through all
of that. Because I felt terrible for her, I mean,
such a nice person, I mean, a young woman. My
(18:22):
Latino side came out and said over Desita, I mean
it was something I felt.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It was unfair, Papa Sita, that means poor little thing.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Remember how uncomfortable it was that she had a one
policeman all the time sitting at the door of her room.
That was disgusting. I thought it was absolutely unnecessary. But
is the law?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
But however sick Anne was. She was the police's prime
suspect in her husband's murder. They posted an officer outside
her hospital room twenty four to seven. What did you
talk about all those times? Do you remember any one
particular conversation?
Speaker 5 (19:08):
A lot about John. He used to ride his four
wheeler and go to see the sunset from the hill
and then come back. There was more that kind of conversation.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Doctor Lozano noticed after a few months, Anne was improving.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
She was more relaxed, and she had more friends, and
she was not a bardy girl, but she was more
social and still always talking about John.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And when she talked about him, did she tell you
that she had a feeling he might do this, or
that there were any hints, or that.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
He might take his life. Yes, she was always concerned
about John taking his life.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
At the end of six months, Anne's health had improved.
She was able to walk, she gained weight, her bipolar
disorder had stabilized. She also had the support of her brother, Ken,
who was renting an apartment in San Jose. But Borachyanne
was not as she'd left it. The police had emptied
(20:23):
her beloved home. Everything was gone. No tiffany lamps, no TV,
no microwave, and no staff and told us Valdo she'd
never stay in the house ever again. Then there were
rumors about the gems. They'd all gone too. The story
(20:43):
went that the police had collected them all and packed
them into suitcases.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Someone else will tell you the story that a lot
of that didn't quite make it into the suitcase.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
In other words, there were rumors of people helping themselves
to Anne's gems at the crime scene. Anne also had
another problem, money and her lawyer, Juan Alvarez. John and
Ann had put ninety million dollars in a trust and
given Alvare's power of attorney, which means he effectively controlled
(21:15):
their fortune. It's reported he'd stopped Anne's credit cards and
payments and hadn't paid the staff at the house. It
became legally very messy and complicated. Alvarez has denied all
the allegations against him, telling CBS that they were bogus.
He didn't respond to our requests for an interview, and
(21:37):
despite the huge sums involved, the situation with the trust
would soon be the least of Anne's problems, because more
than a year after John's death, the police had finally
concluded their investigation. On August the twenty fourth, twenty eleven,
Anne was arrested and charged with first degree murder for
(22:00):
killing her husband, John Felix Bender. A Costa Rican English
newspaper said the case had all the makings of a
tropical Gothic tragedy. Stressed, you think she was underwhen she
was suddenly arrested for the murder of her husband. I mean,
what did.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
You It must have been terrible for her.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Did you talk to her about it?
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Yes, we talked. She was at the beginning silent, very
silent in a way that I once asked her, and
she didn't want to hurt nonbody.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
It would be a further year before Anne would be
in court. With the help of her family and a
few friends, she assembled her defense team. She was also
supported by their loyal former head of security, Jose Pizarro,
the Colonel, as John used to call him. He saw
it as his duty to protect Anne. Now that John
(22:58):
was dead. He was voted to her.
Speaker 11 (23:01):
We used to talk and she always asked, from my opinion,
what she could do about the accusation and why she
was accused, And she talked about it with me every
single day. The whole process had been an orthodox I
thought this couldn't happen, but it did. She was always
worried about what might happen next. She was worried, angry,
(23:24):
and frightened of being involved in the death of her husband.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
It was very hard for her.
Speaker 11 (23:29):
She couldn't understand how they could accuse her of killing
her husband. She got very sad from then on she
struggled with all of this.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
As for the workers in the house, everything changed after
John's death. As Valdo Rojas, their maintenance man, had worked
for the Benders for ten years. It was a good job.
Many of the other staff had also been there for
five years or more. They had become part of the
Bender's dream. But the dream was over and the future
(24:04):
looked very uncertain. Bouracheyaane, the house on the hill, which
had been alive with activity, fell silent. Gone were the
guards and the gardeners who helped create the nature reserve,
gone too. The vets who looked after the sick animals
and John's orchids were left to wither and die. All
(24:27):
was quiet, apart from the sounds of the jungle. Anne's
trial began on January the fourteenth, twenty thirteen in the
courthouse in Perez Zeladon. It would be heard by three judges.
(24:47):
They don't have jury trials in Costa Rica. Anne was
accompanied by her family and a few friends. John's parents,
Paul and Margy, didn't go.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
No, we thought about it, But it's probably my fault
for not going. I didn't know what the hell I
had to do there. What purpose could I serve? I
didn't know what happened. He was gone, She had family
was going to take care of her. So I did
(25:20):
hire a lawyer there to try to tell me what
was going on.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Their son's death had been devastating. At the time, they
felt it was the right decision not to attend the trial.
They stayed in touch with and throughout and gave her
their full support. I think they felt a sense of helplessness.
Their son was dead. Nothing they did now would bring
him back. But now Paul wonders if they made the
(25:48):
right decision.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I probably should have worked harder with that, and it
probably would have been better for me to go down
and get to know the people and talk to them
and figure out what was when. But what difference would
it make?
Speaker 5 (25:58):
It? Nothing I could do about it if.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It's happened, and it's such a difficult thing as well.
I meant break.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I think the main thing that I should say about
that is we really were very supportive of Air because
we wanted her to stay in control of the property,
and we didn't blame her for anything, so we did
everything he could to help her.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Paul and Margie talk easily about most things, laugh too,
but when the subject of John comes up, especially talking
about when and how he died, their voices become so quiet,
and I noticed they reach for each other's hands and
hold on tight.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
You can't do anything about it, And so what would
be the point of going and fighting down in Costa Rica?
But I think what good would that thing to do
is that we'll cause misery. We couldn't help him anymore
and seemed to know what she was doing.
Speaker 12 (27:06):
Ampa news broke that a millionaire heiress was being tried
for the murder of her husband, and camera crews moved.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
In Racerospoza La mortezrouspos John Felix Bender.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
In val Three years after John's death, Anne was in
the dock in a Costa Rican court being tried for
first degree murder. The case was heard almost entirely in Spanish.
The prosecution didn't offer a theory about motive. Reportedly, the
court recorded that she acted without any apparent motive, but
(27:47):
clear intent to end the life of the victim, John
Felix Bender. The prosecution's focus was on the crime scene.
Remember the air plugs. Prosecutors asked why John would go
to bed with those ear plugs in if he was
intending to kill himself. Then there was the gunshot wound
(28:07):
that was on the back of John's head on the
right hand side, whereas John was left handed. None of
this added up to suicide. The prosecution claimed, how did
a left handed person take that shot and how did
the bullet casing end up in those positions. The defense,
(28:28):
on the other hand, argued, this was all a horrible mistake.
John was suicidal and this was the result of years
of planning. Friends confirmed this, and so did emails John sent.
The defense claimed Ann tried to stop him but couldn't.
Speaker 6 (28:47):
They said.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Anne's testimony lasted seventy minutes. She spoke with passion about
her life with John, their loving relationship. She told the
call why they had come to Costa Rica and what
they had hoped to achieve and all of this she
delivered in fluence Spanish. She spoke from the heart, winning
(29:10):
over the press and many who hadn't heard her speak before.
In the media, there was sympathy for her and what
she'd been through. Why was our government taking this poor
woman to court? They asked. All the Benders wanted was
to help Costa Rica. The prosecution and defense rested. The
(29:30):
judges retired to consider the evidence. The case had lasted
six days, from January fourteenth to January the twenty first,
twenty thirteen. Just before the verdict, Anne addressed the court
one more time. An actor is reading her statement. It's
been three years of hell and I feel listened to
(29:53):
and protected by the justice system, and I would like
to thank you. The verdict was read out in front
of a packed courthouse full of TV cameras and spectators
fascinated by the case. Based on the evidence presented, we
have unanimously decided the defendant is acquitted, not guilty. Anne
(30:23):
must have felt huge relief. She could now get on
with her life and grieve her husband in peace. Except
that's not how this story ends. In Costa Rica, there
is no limit to the amount of times you can
be tried for the same crime. Prosecutors wanted a retrial
(30:47):
and that's what they got. Anne would be back in
court for a second time on trial.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
For murder people.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yes, they thought this rich American is never going to jail.
It just won't happen here. Cos Striker wouldn't do that
to a woman. KOs Striker wouldn't do that to an American.
They dropped the bomb on her.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
That's next time on Helen Heaven. You've been listening to
Helen Heaven from Exactly Right Media and iHeart Podcasts produced
by Blanchard House, hosted, written and produced by me Becky Milligan.
(31:35):
The producer and co writer is Poppy Damon. Music is
by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanell, and Toby Mattamol. The
sound Recordistant Head of Sound and Music is Daniel Lloyd Evans.
The lead sound designer is Vulcan Kiseltook. The artwork is
by Vanessa Lilac for Exactly Right Media. The executive producers
(31:57):
are Karen Kilgarreth, Georgia Hartste and Danielle Kramer, with consulting
producer Lilly Ladderwig and associate producer Jay Elias. The creative
director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer
and head of Content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Griselle.
(32:18):
Listen to Helen Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Emma Jane Kirby
Becky Milligan
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