Californian imprisoned for Bolivia attacks dies
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LA PAZ, BOLIVIA — A convicted hotel bomber from California who modeled himself on a fictional vampire has died after becoming ill in prison, officials said Tuesday.
Triston Jay Amero, 26, was serving a 30-year sentence for the 2006 bombing of two low-rent hotels in this capital city. Two Bolivians died in one of the attacks.
Juan Carlos Limpias, a senior official in the national prison service, said Amero complained of stomach pains Monday night and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
An autopsy showed he had pulmonary edema -- a swelling or fluid in the lungs -- said Antonio Torres, chief medical examiner for the Bolivian police. Torres said further tests will show whether a poison or drug caused the death.
U.S. Embassy officials attended the autopsy but made no statement to the news media.
A native of Placerville, Calif., Amero adopted the name of Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo -- a variation on a character in Anne Rice’s vampire novels.
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