American Couple Missing After Escaped Prisoners Stole Their Yacht

Image: Salty Dawg Sailing Association

Edgewater, Maryland couple Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brendel went missing from their island-hopping catamaran Simplicity last week. They were last seen on Sunday, February 18, moored in the Caribbean nation of Granada. The yacht was stolen by a trio of fugitives, who had escaped from a Granadan jail holding cell, where they were being held on joint charges of violent robbery, while one was charged with indecent assault and rape. The trio used the Simplicity to flee Granada north to St. Vincent, where they were recaptured. Hendry and Brendel have not yet been found.

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The couple lived full-time aboard the boat and spent their retirement sailing the eastern seaboard and Caribbean. They were described by those who knew them as experienced adventurers, sailing south in the winter for the last several years. The couple had recently participated in a sailing rally which ended in Antigua to kick off the new year in December. Once the rally had ended, they planned to spend the rest of the winter hopping from island to island, spending a few weeks at each. They had arrived to Granada two weeks prior and were scheduled to spend an additional week before departing back north.

At the time of the boat going missing, the couple’s next-door mooring neighbor posted on social media that he was concerned.

“I was moored next to them Sunday. Saw and spoke to them Sunday afternoon as they were on their way to Grande Anse in their tender,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Possible that they were abducted on shore on Grande Anse if anyone saw them there. I did not hear or see them return but the boat was gone when I woke up early Monday.”

On February 21, the Simplicity was found anchored off the coast of St. Vincent in an abandoned state. The mainsails had been torn, and the boat’s tender was missing its outboard motor. The skipper of the boat which found the Simplicity boarded to find further damage and “evidence of apparent violence,” but nobody else aboard. He notified the St. Vincent and the Grenadines coast guard, which reported the situation to local police. By the end of the day the assailants were recaptured.

The investigation is said to still be in its infancy, but optimism isn’t the word of the day for this situation. For the couple to have been missing now for over a week, it doesn’t seem likely that they remain alive. It seems likely that the violent criminals simply fell into their lives by happenstance, and deemed them expendable.