Golfer murder | Drifter charged in stabbing death of amateur champ in Iowa

Golfer Celia Barquin Arozamena, from Spain

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.

Collin Daniel Richards, 22, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Celia Barquin Arozamena, a student at Iowa State University. He was ordered jailed yesterday on a USD5 million, cash-only bond.

Barquin was found Monday at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames, about 50 kilometers north of Des Moines. Police were called to the course around 10:20 a.m. to investigate a possible missing female 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, according to the criminal complaint filed yesterday .

“It’s still very troubling for something like this to happen in broad daylight in a community that is as safe as Ames is,” Ames police Cmdr. Geoff Huff said at a news conference Tuesday.

It is the second fatal stabbing of a female student in Iowa in recent months. An immigrant from Mexico is charged in the July 18 kidnapping and stabbing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who vanished while out for a run in the small town of Brooklyn.

Barquin, the 2018 Big 12 champion and Iowa State Female Athlete of the year, had no known prior relationship with Richards, Huff said.

Richards, who faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted, reported in a financial affidavit that he has no job. Paul Rounds, a public defender assigned to represent him, filed paperwork asserting his right to not speak to investigators. Rounds declined comment.

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, the complaint said. 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, it said. AP