An influencer and her boyfriend were killed after several gunmen broke into their home while they slept and shot them multiple times.
The Costa Rican Red Cross received an emergency call at 3:19am on Saturday (4 July).
Paramedics arrived at the house in La Cruz to find Gabriela Sanarrusia Chavarría, 28, and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Jorge Isaac Agüero, dead.
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Officers from Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency later discovered a burned-out Chery Tiggo SUV in a field around 2km (1.2 miles) from the crime scene.
Detectives believe it was likely used by the killers as a getaway vehicle, as reported by Need To Know.
Investigators’ leading theory is that the double murder was a score-settling because of the way the attack was carried out and the level of violence involved.
However, they stress that the motive has not yet been confirmed and the investigation remains ongoing.
Gabriela is reported to have survived two previous gun attacks.
The most recent happened in La Cruz on 12 May, when she was travelling in a car with Jorge, 30, and another man before gunmen ambushed the vehicle and opened fire.
Gabriela and Jorge escaped with their lives, but the third occupant died from his gunshot wounds.
She survived another shooting in Liberia in July 2025, in which one woman was killed and two other people were injured.
A year earlier, in April 2024, Gabriela’s then-boyfriend, Juan Carlos Cruz, was killed alongside his brother, Wilber Cruz, and another man in what police believe was a score-settling at a pool hall in La Cruz.
Juan Carlos had been under investigation over alleged migrant smuggling, while Wilber had been named in investigations into alleged drug trafficking.
Just days before the latest attack, Gabriela had returned from a trip to Colombia with her mother and nine-year-old daughter after celebrating her birthday on 27 June.
She had also shared photos from previous trips to Mexico and Panama.
Gabriela had more than 82,600 followers on TikTok and 27,200 on Instagram, where she posted lifestyle and family content.
Just hours before she was killed, she shared a throwback photo with her daughter, writing: “When did you grow up so much, my baby?”
No arrests have been made so far.
