Body of Kidnaped American Found; Shot in the Head
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PANAMA CITY — U.S. officials have recovered the body of an American kidnaped by gunmen loyal to deposed ruler Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega and apparently executed by a gunshot to the head, U.S. officials said today.
The officials said the recovered body was that of Raymond Dragseth, a chemistry teacher at the Panama Canal Commission College who was abducted at the outset of the U.S. invasion from his home near the Vatican Embassy, where Noriega has sought political asylum.
Residents of the Sonesta building in the Punta Paitilla neighborhood said four to five armed men entered the building hours after U.S. troops invaded Panama Dec. 20 and forced the doorman to identify Americans living there.
The gunmen then went to Dragseth’s fourth-floor apartment and dragged him out. He was not seen alive by his family again.
Dragseth’s nephew, Richard Paul, was killed the same night when he failed to stop at a U.S. army roadblock. His body was not released until today.
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