Kurt Van Dyke, an American surfer whose family helped popularize the sport in Northern California, was found murdered in his home in Costa Rica, authorities said Monday.
Van Dyke, 66, was strangled and stabbed during an apparent robbery in Cahuita, where he lived on Costa Rica’s southeast coast, local police said.
His girlfriend, a 31-year-old woman identified only by her last name, Arroyo, told police the couple was tied up and confined to a small room while two men made off with valuables from the residence and their car, a 2013 Hyundai Elantra, Surfer Magazine reported.
Costa Rican police are still searching for the suspects, who have not been publicly identified. Van Dyke’s girlfriend suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the ordeal, according to authorities.
Van Dyke grew up in Northern California but moved to Costa Rica and became a citizen of the Central American nation. He owned a hotel in the tourist town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, down the street from where he lived.
“My brother was a very benevolent, giving person who would help just about anybody,” Van Dyke’s brother, Peter, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Kurt would never hurt anybody, and he was always there when you needed him. Everyone that he met knew this about him.”
Van Dyke’s parents, Gene and Betty, helped build the Northern California surfing community in the 1950s and 1960s; Betty has been credited with encouraging women in the region to join the initially male-dominated scene.
With News Wire Services
