American serial killer William Dathan Holbert, known as “Wild Bill,” was convicted in Panama for murdering five American citizens in Bocas del Toro between 2007 and 2010. He was arrested in 2010 while trying to flee through Nicaragua and sentenced in 2017 to 47 years and one month in prison. He has been imprisoned ever since, first in David and then in La Mega Joya. Holbert confessed to the cold-blooded murder of five people to take possession of their properties, businesses, and money. The victims have been identified as Michael Brown, his wife and teenage son; Bo Icelar; and Cheryl Lynn Hughes. In a letter to the Minister of Government, Dinoska Montalvo, on January 8, 2026, Holbert asserts that he was recommended for a transfer, but nothing has happened. He also claims he has fulfilled his duties within the prison but his sentence has not been commuted, and he feels all his effort goes unrecognized. He complains that there is no technical board in his sector to evaluate his case. “I want someone to see my situation and do something,” he writes. Neighbors described Holbert as loud and wild, but nobody thought he was a killer. The couple, who introduced themselves as Bill and Jane Cortez, arrived in Bocas del Toro around 2007, claiming to be well-to-do entrepreneurs. When the Brown family disappeared and the Cortezes took over their home, renaming it Hacienda Cortez, no one thought much of it. It later emerged that Michael Brown had a checkered past: he was in the witness protection program, having turned witness against several drug dealers in the United States. Locals say expatriates move to the Panamanian province of Bocas del Toro when they’re either wanted by the law or unwanted by society. Bocas is a place where expatriates come and go, a peaceful, out-of-the-way archipelago, much of it accessible only by boat.
