Murdered golfer had ‘competitive drive, passion for life’
A homeless man attacked and killed a top amateur golfer from Spain who was playing a round alone near her university campus in central Iowa, leaving her body in a pond on the course, police said yesterday.
Collin Daniel Richards, 22, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Celia Barquin Arozamena, a student at Iowa State University. Barquin was found on Tuesday at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames, about 50 kilometres north of Des Moines. Police were called after golfers found a golf bag with no one around it.
Officers found Barquin's body some distance from the bag, with several stab wounds to her upper torso, head and neck.
Barquin, the 2018 Big 12 champion and Iowa State Female Athlete of the year, had no known prior relationship with Richards, police said.
Richards, who faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted, reported in a financial affidavit that he has no job.
A police dog tracked Barquin's scent to a homeless encampment along a creek near the golf course, where Richards had been living in a tent. According to court documents filed, officers found Richards with several fresh scratches on his face consistent with fighting, and a deep laceration in his left hand that he tried to conceal.
Richards had reportedly told an acquaintance in recent days that he “had an urge to rape and kill a woman”.
The university said Barquin, a native of Puente San Miguel, Spain, was finishing her civil engineering degree this semester after exhausting her eligibility at Iowa State in 2017-2018.
Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen said in a statement on Twitter that she was “deeply saddened” by Barquin's death.
She was one of the most accomplished players in Cyclone golf history.
In April, she became only the second women's golfer at Iowa State to earn medallist honours at a conference tournament when claiming the 2018 Big 12 Championship. She did it with a three-shot victory. Barquin, who was ranked No 69 nationally by Golfweek, ended her career as a Cyclone with a fourthstraight NCAA Regional appearance and earned All-Big 12 Team honours for the third time — the second player in Iowa State's history to do so.
She was the third Cyclone women's golfer to compete in the US Women's Open Championship, the university said.
The team announced Tuesday it was pulling out of the East & West Match Play in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to be with friends and family and to mourn their loss.
Head women's golf coach Christie Martens said in a release that Barquin was a well-loved “outstanding representative of our school”.
“We will never forget her competitive drive to be the best and her passion for life,” Martens said.