Detectives from the Kidnapping and Abductions Unit of the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish: OIJ) in Costa Rica have not been able to ascertain whether Canadian expat Ryan Piercy, who went missing from family for more than 30 days before returning home in a taxicab, was actually snatched and held under threat of harm.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star:

On Wednesday, January 21st, the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) began looking into the disappearance of Canadian businessman Ryan Craig Piercy, who is believed to have been taken hostage by captors demanding 272 million colones as ransom payment, which is more than $500K in today’s currency exchange rate.

[the] 46-year old Mr. Piercy received a mysterious phone call at noon on the day before his disappearance was reported to the police. He drove his Nissan Tiida somewhere outside of San Jose; said vehicle was found abandoned in a coffee farm just outside of Santo Domingo in Heredia, a municipality not far from the heart of the Greater San Jose Metropolitan area.

According to two news media outlets in Costa Rica, Mr. Piercy arrived in his home in Heredia, where he arrived around midnight on a Saturday [more than four weeks later] via a red taxicab. [He appeared to be in good health.]

National TV news network Teletica mentioned that Mr. Piercy’s family made two payments to the alleged captors, but no further details were provided as to the amounts or how the payments were actually made. During a February 17th TV newscast, Teletica indicated that Mr. Piercy’s name appears in about 70 business entities registered in Costa Rica, and that his net worth was estimated at $1 million. 

According to a news report filed by Hulda Miranda of national newspaper La Nacion, Mr. Piercy’s testimony given to OIJ investigators includes the following details:

Mr. Piercy’s family made a $20K wire transfer to a foreign bank account as a ransom payment, which significantly lower than the alleged initial demand of $500K in Bitcoin.

Mr. Piercy mentioned that he was tied and kept outdoors during his alleged period of captivity. To this effect, OIJ agents took him to a medical investigator for a forensic physical exam, of which results are pending.

OIJ Chief Francisco Segura told La Nacion that in-depth interrogations have not been conducted in this case since Mr. Piercy is still shaken up by the events. As a result of this scarcity of information, the OIJ is not ready to call this case a kidnapping. At this point, OIJ agents are very interested in trying to determine if Mr. Piercy can remember where he was held hostage.

With regard to the Bitcoin demand, Chief Segura explained that Canadian-liaison INTERPOL agents arrived in Costa Rica to look into the case, which they had no frame of reference to compare to. Chief Segura added that the initial ransom demand would have required extensive logistics for the alleged kidnappers since they would have required a couple of Bitcoin wallets in order to venture into the exchange markets, which can be very volatile for this virtual currency.

Alleged Inside Job Reported by Tabloid

According to Manuel Estrada from daily tabloid Diario Extra, an associate of Mr. Piercy masterminded the alleged kidnapping, which would have involved the transfer of funds from North American companies to various accounts located in Romania and other nations in Europe.

Diario Extra also reported that they received an anonymous phone call from a male who claims to be the taxicab driver who picked up Mr. Piercy in a desolate part of San Jose. The caller said that he recognized Mr. Piercy from pictures published in the media, and that he looked thin, worn out and very nervous, and that his unexpected passenger mentioned that he had not eaten in a while and that he had been subject to physical attacks.

Two of Mr. Piercy’s most prominent business ventures are the Association of Costa Rica Residents (ARCR) and Casa Canada, which provide consultancy and legal services for individuals who are planning on becoming expats in Costa Rica. For the record, The Costa Rica Star has previously published press releases for ARCR.