ISLE STRANGLE
The Columbia University graduate found dead in a popular tourist spot in Panama was strangled with her bathing-suit coverup, it was revealed Wednesday.
Catherine Johannet, 23, was attacked by an assailant along a wooded trail on Bastimentos Island on Sunday afternoon — just days after she vanished in the beach paradise of Bocas del Toro.
The killer tore off her pink coverup and used it to strangle the Westchester native, according to Nex Noticias, a Panamanian TV station. She was also struck in the head with a rock, CBS News said.
The killer was still at large, but authorities detained eight other people in connection with the slaying after conducting raids in Bocas del Toro, La Prensa newspaper reported. The FBI joined the investigation Tuesday.
Johannet’s parents, two older siblings and boyfriend flew to Panama from Westchester to identify her and return home with her body for a Christian burial, Nex Noticias said.
On Feb. 2, Johannet had taken a day trip to Bastimentos from nearby Colon Island, where she was staying at a hostel, La Prensa said.
Johannet, a 2015 Columbia grad, was supposed to return to Bastimentos around dusk. But her body was discovered three days later after the hostel contacted police when she never came back, the newspaper reported.
Family members on Tuesday posted a sign addressed to the media on the front door of their Scarsdale home, reading: “Our family is in the midst of grieving. We ask you to respect our privacy. We respectfully decline to comment any further at this time. Please vacate the premises.”
Johannet’s older sister, Laura, posted on Facebook that the family is planning on holding a service at Scarsdale Congregational Church at 11 a.m. Saturday at 1 Heathcote Road.
Laura and her brother, Paul, posted messages thanking people for supporting the family as they tried to find their younger sister.
“We love and miss her dearly. She was a world traveler — by the age of 23, she had already visited 6 continents and innumerable coun- tries, including a recent 18-month trip to Vietnam where she taught English Literature to local students,” Paul wrote on Facebook.
“She was cheerful, adventurous, thoughtful and warm — all qualities I strive towards. I’ll always look up to my youngest sister.”
Catherine’s last post on Instagram shows her smiling on a Panamanian island, with an idyllic backdrop of palm trees along a sandy beach.