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A missing couple may have been killed and thrown overboard after escaped prisoners hijacked their boat, police believe.
Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, from Virginia, were on the trip of a lifetime sailing the Caribbean in their catamaran Simplicity when they vanished on February 18 after being seen near a beach in Grenada.
Police found their vessel abandoned 80 miles north on the island of St Vincent three days later, on Ralph’s 71st birthday, CBS News reported.
‘Several items were strewn on the deck and in the cabin, and a red substance that resembled blood was seen on board’, police spokesman Junior Simmons said.
Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel were on the trip of a lifetime spending a winter sailing the Caribbean when they disappeared (Picture: Family Handout)
The catamaran Simplicity had been Ralph and Kathy’s home for the last 12 years since selling up and moving from Virginia, USA (Picture: @246Paps / BACKGRID)
The same day police arrested three men who escaped from Grenada Police custody on the day the married couple were last seen.
Investigators now believe the three prisoners captured the boat on February 19, tossing the bodies of the American couple into the Caribbean Sea as they sailed 80 miles from Grenada to St Vincent.
Don McKenzie, commissioner of the Royal Grenada Police Force, said: ‘Information suggests that while traveling between Grenada and St Vincent, [the suspects] disposed of the occupants.”
The couple is ‘presumed dead’ but police are yet to confirm the Americans’ deaths, continuing the search for their bodies.
Family and friends confirmed Ralph and Kathy – who have been married for 27 years – had been on holiday in Grenada where their boat was docked, CBS News reported.
The boat had been their home for the last 12 years since they moved from Virginia, and they planned to spend the winter sailing around the Caribbean.
It was supposed to be their ‘last grand trip’ on Simplicity, according to longtime friend K.C. McAlpin.
‘It was their home. Everything they had, they owned, was on that boat. It was their life’, the couple’s son, Nick Buro, who’s in Grenada with his brother, told CNN.
‘Kathy worked her whole life and then retired. Ralph worked in financial services and continued to work from the boat.
‘But really what they did was choose a lifestyle that most of us would never imagine could be done.
‘And they loved every minute of it and they saw many parts of the world and just lived a life of joy and love.’
He added: ‘They were super careful to be safe all the time.
‘Everywhere they went everything they did, safety was their top, top concern. So this unfortunate accident, I think, it came out of nowhere for them.’
The three suspects have been identified as Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25.
They were arrested in December over an alleged violent robbery.
Mitchell also faced one count of rape, three counts of attempted rape and two counts of indecent assault and causing harm, Royal Grenada Police Force said.
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