Missing sailor couple feared dead after boat theft

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Police say that three jail escapees stole a boat belonging to an American couple. Family identified the couple as Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, who are pictured in the inset. (Inset photo: GoFundMe campaign; screenshot: ABC News file footage in a story about the case)

Authorities fear the worst after recapturing three jail escapees — the men allegedly stole a yacht and might have killed a missing sailor couple.

“The RGPF is currently working on leads that suggest that the two occupants of the yacht may have been killed in the process,” the Royal Grenada Police Force wrote on Thursday. “It is believed that the occupants of the yacht were American citizens.”

Loved ones identified the missing sailors as Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, a married Virginia couple in their 60s who had been enjoying retirement on their boat, “Simplicity.”

According to cops in the Caribbean nation of Grenada, Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25, were locked up at the South St. George’s Police Station and fled on Sunday, Fed. 18. All three had been jointly charged with a count each of robbery with violence. On top of that, Mitchell faced a count of rape, three counts of attempted rape, two counts of indecent assault, and a count of causing harm at the time of the escape.

The search came to an end up north in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Hendry and Brandel were longtime members of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association. According to the organization, a good Samaritan encountered Simplicity anchored and abandoned off a beach on the south coast of St. Vincent.

“The good Samaritan had boarded the boat and noted that the owners, Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, were not onboard and found evidence of apparent violence,” the organization said. “Contact information for the SDSA was posted and the skipper contacted the Association. The good Samaritan contacted the St. Vincent coast guard alerting them of the situation; they in turn notified the local police. The Coast Guard took possession of Simplicity and the St. Vincent police are currently investigating with the U.S Embassy and the Grenada police department.”

Grenada police said they worked with their St. Vincent counterparts to rearrest the escapees Wednesday. They said the men had taken a yacht that had been docked in the St. George’s area, and then made their way to St. Vincent. But as mentioned before, cops believe the original yacht occupants are dead.

“What happened in Grenada was a perfect storm. It was a perfect tragedy of a perfect storm of a perfect love story,” Hendry’s sister, Suellen Desmarais, told West Palm Beach ABC affiliate WPTV in Florida. “They went into town to have a little bite and to walk back (on Feb. 18),” she said. “Somehow Ralph crossed paths in this teeny tiny town with these three men. What happened after that, we’re not sure.”

“Kathy and Ralph, experienced adventurers, spent their retirement sailing aboard Simplicity, spending summers in New England and embracing the warmth of Caribbean winters,” said a GoFundMe campaign to support family. “Their final voyage with the Salty Dawg Sailing Association crew took an unthinkable turn as Simplicity was found abandoned in St. Vincent, bearing chilling evidence of a violent struggle.”

Desmarais reportedly said that the couple had been in a once-in-a-lifetime trip, which had been in the works for 12 years, during the incident.

“Ralph and Kathy are the kindest people in the entire world and I just can’t understand how a tragedy like this could happen to people as kind and nice as them,” she said. “It feels made up and I just can’t comprehend why someone would do this? Why didn’t someone just take the boat?”

But Desmarais is holding out hope that her brother and sister-in-law are still alive.

“You have to presume they’re still alive until further notice, and without bodies or DNA, I won’t give up,” she told WHAS, the ABC affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky.