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Los Muertos Beach. Photo by Ed Walsh
A San Carlos tourist was murdered in his hotel room in Puerto Vallarta early Wednesday morning, Mexican authorities said.
Timothy Connor, 47, was stabbed to death after he fought with an intruder shortly after 4 a.m. His wife, Susan Connor, 41, was injured.
According to Puerto Vallarta newspaper reports, police believe the burglar entered the Connor's room of the La Palapa Condos through a balcony door. Timothy Connor confronted the man and the two fought. The condo was on the second floor so it may have been easier for the intruder to gain entry.
Susan Connor was injured when she came to her husband's aid. She was knocked to the floor in her fight with the intruder and had injuries to her arms, according to published reports. KGO-TV in San Francisco reported that she was out of the hospital and headed back to the Bay Area Thursday night. Timothy Connor was a teamster and worked for DHL on the San Francisco Peninsula, KGO-TV reports.
Timothy Connor's sister, Suzanne Connor, told KGO-TV, "(Timothy Connor) stood up and said 'get out of here' and he didn't get the words out of his mouth and he was knifed in the abdomen. And he started swinging and my sister-in-law jumped up and started throwing things at the assailant and then he just went crazy and just kept stabbing at my brother and stabbing until he fell over."
Police are looking for the killer who ran away without taking any property. The suspect is described only as a young man who was wearing a white shirt and denim pants.
La Palapa Condos is a gay-friendly property on Los Muertos Beach, just a short walk from the gay Blue Chairs Beach.
Comments
Mexico is NOT a safe tourist destination. 30% of all "non-natural" deaths of U.S. citizens outside this country happen in Mexico. To read tragic vacation death stories many written by heartbroken family members visit: www.mexicovacationawareness.com
Yikes!!
This is horrific! Tim made deliveries to our office at least three times a week. He was a GREAT guy who always made me laugh. My heart goes out to his wife and family. Tim will be greatly missed.
so very sad! my thoughts and prayers are with the family now. I have stayed at lapalapa for the past 14 years without any incidents I feel very blessed but it is such a shame that everywhere is starting to feel alot less safe and that this ha to happen to anyone.
Why is this in the gay travel section? He wasn't gay.
While I will not address any negative comments and add fuel to any ones hatred. I will say that while my brother was a happily married heterosexual man, he loved people,wouldn't judge, he would try and save anyones life. This story was picked up from part of an interview I did to get the word out to people. The Daily News Group is the only media organization that printed my plea to warn people and we thank them for that.
Hello , i have never forgotten what has happened. I think about Tim often when i am smoking a fine cigar or just enjoying life. My wife Barb worked with him and had good times a DHL events. My e mail is Rockyknine@aol.com please contact me for further. Let to be know , I aim for justice!!!!
This is horrible. I went to High school with Tim, Eric Summers(friend of Tim's).
Tim was a good guy and I'm sure under any other circumstances the criminal guy would have been the one lying there. My sympathies to the family. Jeff
Yeah that was a truly classless post.
I can't believe the lack of coverage this has warranted. I saw on the news about a "manhunt" yet the story had no info on that.
Where can I find the Daily news group?
I googled it but can't find anything. Is the PA news group?
That news group is the company that owns a number of papers including the San Jose Mercury News and the Palo Alto Daily News. They often run the same stories in several papers. The story about Tim ran in the San Jose Mercury and the Palo Alto Daily News.
DAVID: Without question the attack on Mr. Connor was a horrific and totally inexcusable event and I sincerely hope the attacker is caught and dealt with to the full extent of the law, albe that will not bring Mr. Connor back. This attack or ones like it could and in fact do occur anywhere in the world. My wife and I have winter vacationed for the past 5 years in Puerto Vallarta. Coincidently we just left there the day before Mr. Connor was murdered after a 38 day stay at a condo complex in the same area as laPalapa. As a matter of fact other than this year we have actually stayed at LaPalapa for the past three years and have found the complex and the area to be very safe. Our experience has been that we feel very comfortable walking around day or evening. There is a very strong police presence on the streets and in the beach areas of Puerto Vallarta both day and night and my wife and I see no more, perhaps even less troublesome or questionable looking persons in our travels around PV than we do in our own home city in Canada. I am not in any way trying to negate the seriousness or sadness of the Connors' incident. I would not however wish to have people who have never been to Puerto Vallarta envision it as a dangerous place, perhaps one to avoid as a potential vacation destination because of this incident. There are bad people and criminals everywhere. Puerto Vallarta is no more unsafe, and has no more criminals, in my opinion based upon my having vacationed there five times for extended periods than any other destination or habitat my own home city included. We need to take precautions no matter where we are, at home or on vacation. My condolences to the Connor family whom I do not know and none of which the before mentioned is intended to mean anything to as I realize it will not bring Mr. Connor back.
Ed, thank you for following up with this story. Before I leave this earth I will find justice for my family. I read all of the blogs that I can and I have seen so many people defend Mexico. Frankly, I do not understand the lure of Mexico, yes it is beautiful but not beautiful enough to risk your life. I pray nightly for those that still go there that they will not be struck by a tradgedy such as this. My heart is broken, my family is broken. I agree that these things can happen anywhere in the world, including our own country but beyond the safety issues in Mexico, you will not receive the care you need in an emergency or help from the police. Are there bad cops in the US? I am sure there are, most are not but the coruption is so wide spread among public official in Mexico that you can't tell the good from the bad. I have heard hundreds of stories now from people about what has happened there to them but these horrific stories are not enough to garner media attention because they just aren't sensational enough. Tim went there for years, new the area, the people the language and was a smart strong man. If this can happend to him, it can happen to anyone. Thank you all for the thoughts and kind things said about Tim. He was one of a kind and will be missed by so many. The world is less safe without him.
with all due respect to timothys family people defend mexico if it is somewhere that they have gone yearly in my case 18 years in a row with ot any thing bad ever happening it can happen anywhere even in your own nighbor hood a close friend of mines son and daughter in law who werwe newley weds were murderd miles fom me in the country by a serial killer who was parolled early by mistake from another state I would not trade the 18 years of wonderful times in mexico for staying at home in fear because something could happen when it can and does happen in your own back yard
I am sorry to hear this news about Puerto Vallarta. My sympathy goes out to the Connor's and their families.
I have stayed in La Palapa on the second floor twice and now am further saddened to hear this tragedy. I have been going to PV since 1995 and never encountered a problem until last year. My partner and I rented a condo located at Casita Encantada (just down the street/beach)last March.
On the first night we naively left the balcony doors open despite the balcony being 13-15 feet off of the ground only to awake at 6AM to find our place robbed. In retrospect we were lucky we didn't awaken to find the thief in our condo unlike the Connor's. I woke up to find a lap top, Ipod, tennis shoes, book bag, camera and other replaceable items stolen. This thief was brazen enough to open the night stand drawers only a foot or so away from our heads on both sides of the bed. Luckily, this person didn't open the inside zippers of the roll-aboards where our credit cards, passports and some cash was held. We contacted the security at the condo and they called the tourist police. It took them over 45 minutes to arrive and once on-site the tourist police discussed this whole incident with the condo security. The condo security guy was considerate enough to explain what we needed to do in broken English, verifying what we thought we understood with our poor tourist level of Spanish. Ironically, after asking the tourist police in Spanish where to file a police report did he reply in very good English. He then asked for a pen to write down the address. We filed a police report with the help of one of our Spanish speaking friends which took half of a day. We notified some of the other owners and renters of the condo complex but, they reacted as if it was no big deal or shrugged it off. I have lived and traveled all over the world, so this was not my first encounter with crime. I just wanted to inform my fellow neighbor. It is a tragedy this happened and it should be sign for those going there or anywhere to be very, very careful in locking their doors and mindful at all times.
Hopefully the despicable thug or thugs will be caught soon.
Just returned from PV. I have been going their since 1978. Many changes have taken place and with the tourist and condo expansion has come a large Mexican population to work ect. Just look as you are comming from the airport and you can see the poor living conditions in the barrios. This week in PV I noticed a large presence of Mexican Nationals for Easter. Also a large presence of police and military. In the Los Muertos beach area there were many thug types and young mexican men with their pit bulls, many of the guys looked like gangsters form LA.
Well to sum it all up PV is a city with problems like other cities and it is best to be careful in your condo and some areas of PV, wish it did not have to be that way.
Hello , I have smoked cigars with Tim. he was a class act well not really an act a real person full of life and very intelligent. i did not know him well since he was a teamster where my wife worked but let me tell you he was a special person. When I heard how he perished I was stunned and now with the time that has passed angry. I want justice for him and other who are victims of people or should I say zombies who do not have any morals or limitations for their own gains. god bless you Tim 5 yrs and will never forget you. David t as I would say to you thanks for the cigar!
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