RALEIGH
A North Carolina man accused of killing two Americans in Panama was married with three kids, living a successful life with a lucrative landscaping business and a beautiful mountain home.
That was six years ago. Then things went from promising to problematic for William Dathan Holbert.
He split from his wife and family. He sold his business, filed for bankruptcy and stopped paying child support.
Authorities said that his life on the run started soon after. He sold a $200,000 coastal home that he didn't own, and a car he had stolen in Montana, according to law enforcement officials.
He used aliases and eluded authorities in at least six states, even escaping police in an off-road, high-speed chase in Wyoming.
Holbert turned up this week in Nicaragua, along with a new wife, whom acquaintances said appeared to be a woman who he met in Asheville
as his family life crumbled.
He was deported on Thursday to Panama to face charges in the killings of two Americans, who were found buried behind a hotel.
The couple also face questioning in the disappearances of five other people, whom authorities identified as three Americans and two Panamanian workers.
The couple are charged with killing Cheryl Lynn Hughes, 53, a St. Louis, Mo., native who had lived in Panama for 10 years, and Bo Icelar, who a friend described as the former owner of a Santa Fe, N.M., gallery.
Investigators in Panama said that the killings may have been part of a scheme to steal the victims' property.
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