Chile Hunt for Justice Winds Up as Enigma

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/world/americas/chile-hunt-for-justice-winds-up-as-enigma.html

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SANTIAGO, Chile — The Chilean courts have long been after Ray E. Davis, a former American Navy captain, accusing him of being involved in the murder of two Americans decades ago that inspired the award-winning 1982 film “Missing.”

A Chilean judge indicted Mr. Davis in 2011 and requested his extradition from the United States, where he was assumed to be living with his wife, Patricia. The Chilean Supreme Court then authorized the extradition request last October.

But it turns out Mr. Davis may have been right under their noses all along, living in a nursing home in an upscale part of the Chilean capital. Any attempts to haul him into court may now be too late; documents show that he recently died here as well.

The death of Mr. Davis, former commander of the United States Military Group at the embassy in Santiago, would leave many unanswered questions about the possible roles played by United States officials in the killings of the Americans Charles Horman, 31, and Frank Teruggi, 24, while in military custody shortly after the 1973 military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. It was the Horman case that is depicted in the film “Missing” by the director Costa-Gavras.

Judge Jorge Zepeda indicted Mr. Davis on accusations that he provided Chilean intelligence officers with information on the two men. As commander of the military group, the ruling said, Mr. Davis directed a secret investigation into the political activities of American citizens in Chile and did not prevent their murders, “although he was in a position to do so, given his coordination with Chilean agents.”

At the time of the indictment, Mrs. Davis told The Associated Press that her husband had Alzheimer’s disease and was in a nursing home. She did not explain, however, that the nursing home was in Santiago.

It is not clear when or why Mr. Davis moved back to Chile, and his location was apparently a well-guarded secret.

American Embassy officials in Chile said they were unaware that Mr. Davis was living in Santiago until early this past May, when they were informed of his death a few days before. Mrs. Davis also confirmed her husband’s death in a telephone interview from Niceville, Fla., but declined to say where it had occurred.

A death certificate issued in Santiago says that a Ray E. Davis died of a “multisystemic failure” on April 30, at the age of 88. At the time, he was living in a nursing home in Providencia, a district of the capital. An employee said that Mr. Davis was there for a little over a year. That would suggest that he was admitted to the home around the time of his indictment in November 2011.

Records at the Parque del Recuerdo cemetery in Santiago also show that a Ray E. Davis was cremated there but that his remains were taken elsewhere.

Charles Horman’s widow, Joyce, is unconvinced that it is the same Ray Davis accused of involvement in her husband’s murder, and she has asked the United States Embassy to provide proof of the cancellation of the former captain’s pension.

“How is it that no one notified the Chilean court system or the U.S. Embassy that Ray Davis was in Chile, when it now looks like he had been in Chile for a year or so?” she said. “Everyone questioned has been very tight-lipped. This is not normal.”

If true, Mr. Davis’s death could interrupt the line of investigation into the responsibility of the United States Embassy in surveilling American citizens and its relationship with the Chilean military during a period of severe political repression. He remains the sole United States official to be charged in these murders.

Embassy officials would not confirm whether the American government had yet received the extradition request, and the Chilean Foreign Ministry did not answer a similar inquiry. According to people close to the investigation, Chilean officials are still verifying reports of Mr. Davis’s death.