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RALEIGH, N.C. - A North Carolina man accused of killing two Americans in Panama was married with three kids, living a successful life with a lucrative landscaping business and a beautiful mountain home.
That was six years ago. Then things went from promising to problematic for William Dathan Holbert.
He split from his wife and family. He sold his business, filed for bankruptcy and stopped paying child support. Authorities said his life on the run started soon after.
He sold a $200,000 coastal home he didn't own, and a car he had stolen in Montana, according to law enforcement officials. He used aliases and eluded authorities in at least six states, even escaping police in an off-road, high-speed chase in Wyoming.
Holbert turned up this week in Nicaragua, along with a new wife, who acquaintances said appeared to be a woman he met in North Carolina as his family life crumbled.
He was deported Thursday to Panama to face charges in the killings of two Americans found buried behind a hotel, and the couple face questioning in the disappearances of 5 other people, reportedly three Americans and two Panamanian workers.
The couple are charged with killing Cheryl Lynn Hughes, 53, a St. Louis, Missouri, native who had lived in Panama for 10 years, and Bo Icelar, who a friend described as the former owner of a Santa Fe, New Mexico, gallery.
Investigators in Panama said the killings may have been part of a scheme to steal the victims' property.
Known as William Cortez in Panama, authorities said Holbert and his wife preyed on residents of the scenic coastal Bocas del Toro region. People who knew Holbert in the U.S. said the woman arrested alongside him appeared to be Laura Michelle Reese, whom he met in 2004 after selling his landscaping business.
He was helping manage a fitness club in Asheville, North Carolina, when he struck up a romantic relationship with Reese, his co-worker. But then his boss realized he spent $25,000 in company checks to buy TVs, mattresses and washers and dryers — and he was soon out of a job.
"If only he could have focused himself, he had a brilliant mind," said Kevin Hoover, the former boss who never pressed charges. He and authorities recalled Holbert's white supremacy tattoos and how he later started a business in the area that sold items such as flags and bandanas with swastikas.
In May 2004, Holbert separated from his wife; a year later, he filed for bankruptcy, listing hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts.
In June 2005, a judge ordered Holbert arrested for failing to make child support payments and failing to appear in court. He was sentenced to 20 days in jail, but never showed up.
Within months he stole a car in Montana and sold it to an unsuspecting buyer, then he returned to North Carolina and sold a home that didn't belong to him. Authorities estimated he made about $200,000 in cash on the deal.
In February 2006, he led police in Wyoming on a high-speed chase, eventually crashing and abandoning a stolen Jeep Cherokee. He and an unidentified female passenger escaped.
A few days later, Holbert used an alias to rent a moving van in Bismarck, North Dakota, authorities said. The company reported it missing, and it was found almost a month later in North Palm Beach, Florida.
There was no sign of Holbert.
Authorities in North Carolina still have warrants out for Holbert's arrest.
"I guess that warrant's going to stay on file for a while because it's hard to believe he's going to be back from Panama soon," said Lucy Crockett, a spokeswoman at the Wilmington Police Department.
