Costa Rica police arrest Kurt Van Dyke's girlfriend in killing

Kurt Van Dyke’s girlfriend has been arrested in Costa Rica on suspicion of participating in his February murder, investigators said, after telling authorities that armed intruders killed him during a robbery.

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency, known as the OIJ, arrested the woman, 31, identified by her surname Arroyo, and a man, 34, surnamed Gutiérrez during raids Thursday. Agents searched three homes in Roxana, in the Pococí area of Limón province, before the arrests.

Nearly nine months had passed since the killing. Van Dyke, 66, was discovered dead beneath a bed at his Hone Creek home near Puerto Viejo on Feb. 14. A sheet covered his head and a knife lay beside him, police said.

A preliminary police report documented multiple stab wounds and signs of asphyxiation on his body.

Car found undamaged

OIJ official Vladimir Muñoz said investigators believe the suspects made the killing look like a robbery by staging the theft of Arroyo’s car. Investigators said the vehicle had been reported stolen but was later recovered undamaged in the Atlantic region.

Muñoz said investigators had established that Arroyo was involved and that she had a relationship with Van Dyke. Investigators suspect she helped facilitate the attack, KTLA reported, citing Costa Rican news reports.

Muñoz said detectives believe Gutiérrez went into the home with two other men, who used violence while trying to obtain Van Dyke’s bank card security codes. Van Dyke was tortured as they tried to get those codes, Muñoz said. Investigators believe the attack was planned to obtain bank information connected to Van Dyke’s hotel.

Authorities have not announced whether either suspect faces formal criminal charges, and the accusations remain unproven in court, KTLA reported. The investigation is ongoing.

Arroyo had described a different sequence in February. She told authorities that two armed men entered the home, tied her with zip ties and assaulted her. She said they took several valuables, among them her 2013 Hyundai Elantra, before fleeing.

La Nación described Arroyo as Van Dyke’s former girlfriend and said she first told authorities that armed intruders attacked the couple.

“King of Salsa Brava”

Van Dyke grew up in Santa Cruz, California, began visiting the Puerto Viejo area in 1983 and moved to Costa Rica in the 1980s. His command of the waves off Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast earned him the name “King of Salsa Brava,” and he owned and ran a hotel there.

His father, Gene Van Dyke, was a Northern California surfing pioneer in the 1950s. His mother, Betty, ranked among the world’s first female competitive surfing champions and was 88 when she died in 2021.

“My brother was a very benevolent, giving person who would help just about anybody,” his brother Peter Van Dyke told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2026, after his death.

The OIJ said it continues to search for two other men believed to have gone into the home with Gutiérrez.