Wall Street millionaire built Costa Rica jungle mansion then found shot dead

A former Wall Street millionaire swapped the pressures of high finance for an idyllic life in paradise alongside his wife — only to end up shot in the head while in bed.

John Bender built an elaborate and extravagantly lavish mansion deep within the Costa Rican jungle together with his wife Ann. Tragedy then struck when he was discovered dead in bed.

What initially appeared to be a suicide quickly became a murder inquiry, with all suspicion falling upon Ann.

She was wrongly convicted of his killing on two separate occasions, though both verdicts were subsequently overturned on appeal. She then faced a third trial for the very same crime, according to CBS.

Their residence in Boracayan — the nature reserve the couple established within a dense Costa Rican rainforest — comprised four storeys and was constructed entirely to their own specifications. The 50,000 square foot property featured no conventional walls, relying solely on screens to keep insects at bay and to protect their pet sloth and bird, reports the Daily Star.

It also served as the operational base for the park they founded. In the early hours of 8th January 2010, John died from a gunshot wound to the head, leaving everyone baffled.

The millionaire had relocated just two years into his marriage, and their 2,000-hectare nature reserve was flourishing.

Yet behind closed doors, their marriage was deeply troubled. Both had been battling mental health difficulties at the start of that year.

To this day, the true perpetrator remains unidentified. John had written emails expressing a desire to die in the weeks beforehand, yet he was shot in the back of the head, while in bed and wearing ear plugs.

Becky Milligan travelled to Costa Rica to take a closer look at the justice system and interview virtually everyone involved on the Hell and Heaven podcast.

Milligan told the Guardian that the mansion was dubbed The Benderdome by disgruntled locals. Many believe that the isolation of jungle life is not something you can simply move into, but rather something you must have known and adapted to over time.

Some even suggest the sounds of the jungle can drive a person to madness. One neighbour said that “a lot of people go kind of crazy.”

Co-host of the podcast Poppy Damon agreed. She said”We understood the story a lot more once we’d gone there,” Damon said.

“When we went into the jungle, the audio of all the different creatures and birds was so rich. It was like nothing I’d ever heard. My ears couldn’t really process the amount of sound. And going to the property just takes your breath away, because it’s this massive building with no walls, and it looks like a car park, but it’s also sort of beautiful.”

Ann’s psychiatrist at the time concluded that both she and John were psychotic, diagnosing them with folie à deux, a condition in which two people reinforce one another’s mental illness until it becomes untreatable within the community. Ann also suffered from Lyme disease, and John dismissed conventional treatment in favour of injecting her with water drawn from a nearby stream.

The initial crime scene photographs were not captured to the same standard as those of American law enforcement and were illuminated solely by the 500 Tiffany lamps Ann had amassed.

Carol Vaughn, who authored Crazy Jungle Love about the case, believes there is a deeper story at play. She said: “Obsession is the right word. It was all things Bender, 24 hours a day. Didn’t comb my hair, didn’t brush my teeth. Dog barely got walked. I thought I was writing a love story. I thought, this is Shakespearean. This is biblical, the love these two people had for each other. And so I was writing it from that point of view. Meanwhile, the whole world was viewing it as a crime story and nothing more. At the time of his death, they were both deeply depressed. That chemistry, I think, made one of their deaths inevitable.”

Milligan added: “Visiting Costa Rica meant that we could meet people face to face, and be really fair and interested in the characters, rather than have the voyeurism which sometimes happens with these things. One of the most moving things was speaking to John’s parents, Paul and Margie. It just brings it home that this is a family tragedy, and any of us could go through this.”

Ann tipped the scales at a shocking 38kg when officers arrived at the crime scene and bore a resemblance to “someone who had just walked out of a concentration camp,” as one of her friends recalled.

Some of her jewels, valued at nearly £12million, were nowhere to be discovered following her husband’s death. “First, she was acquitted,” says Vaughn.

“Then, she was found guilty on all counts. The third time, she was acquitted again due to lack of evidence, but then immediately the prosecutor put in for a fourth trial.

“I was the representative for the American embassy, and I snuck her a new emergency passport the day she was acquitted. I was sitting right behind her. I slid it under the chair. She put it right next to her heart, and was gone two days later. I mean, she was out of here and she’ll never be back. She’s lost her money, her property, her jewels, everything. She’s wiped out.”

Nevertheless, the case continues to baffle investigators. Damon said: “The reason it hooks people in is because, if you pull a thread, more seem to come out. There were things we just kept chasing, like a mercenary who we planned to meet, and he stood us up.”

Milligan said: “John is forever fascinating. So is Ann. They tried so hard to create something beautiful, and do something good. What stays with you is how it all went wrong.”

Vaughn revealed that the absence of closure continued to trouble her: “That’s what’s tormented me because I can’t honestly say what happened that night, and I’ve read everything that can be read about it.

“When I visited Ann in jail, I found a woman so not playing with a full deck of cards that I didn’t even ask her, because I don’t think she knows. I honestly don’t think even she knew what happened that night.”

Damon said: “I almost always return to the key things that jump out. Both of them were mentally really unwell, so it was a pressure cooker. I think it’s strange that he had a gun. It’s also very strange that he had his earplugs in. The details are strange and bizarre.”

Milligan added: “There are so many details where you can say, ‘Oh, this means that, and that means this,’ but no, it doesn’t. You go backwards and forwards, yo-yoing all over the place. Maybe we will never know. Let’s just tell the story and talk about the love, the tragedy and the paradise they tried to create. That is their legacy.”