Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel had been married for 27 years. He was 66 and a retired financial advisor; she was 70 and a retired real estate agent. They had lived in Alexandria, Virginia, until years ago when they decided to retire and live on their 48-foot St. Francis catamaran named Simplicity.
Then they followed their dreams, spending summers in New England and winters in the Caribbean. Warm and popular, they made friends everywhere. Practicing Christians, they made a prayer before dinner every night, giving thanks for their blessings.
Last fall, they joined the Salty Dawg Sailing Association rally from Hampton, Virginia, to English Harbour, Antigua, and then decided to cruise farther down the Caribbean. On Feb. 18, they were anchored off Grenada; it was the last time their family, Nick Buro, Brandel’s son, and Bryan Hendry, Hendry’s son, heard from them.
On Feb. 21, another sailor was taking a leisurely paddle off the beach on the southern coast of St. Vincent on his SUP when saw Simplicity anchored and apparently abandoned. The headsail was torn; things didn’t look right. He boarded the boat and found bloodstains on the deck; the interior had been ransacked. No one was on board. But he found Hendry’s and Brandel’s passports, and a note with an e-mail address for the Salty Dawg Sailing Association.
The sailor contacted the St. Vincent Coast Guard and Salty Dawg. The association tracked the cat’s route from St. George, Grenada, to St. Vincent, some 80 miles. The U.S. Coast Guard also tracked the boat on AIS, showing it had left Grenada about 10 p.m. on Feb. 18 and then arrived at St. Vincent about noon the next day.
As it happened, three criminals had escaped from a Grenada prison on Feb. 18; they were serving sentences for a variety of charges, including violent robbery, assault, and rape.
The Grenada police captured the three men less than a mile away from the boat on the 21st, not long after the good Samaritan sailor had found it and sounded the alarm. A few days later, Don McKenzie, commissioner of the Royal Grenada Police Force, held a news conference saying that there was evidence of a violent struggle on the boat. “Information suggests that while traveling between Grenada and St. Vincent, they disposed of the occupants,” he said.
Separately, Junior Simmons, superintendent of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, said “while sailing from Grenada, the suspects committed several criminal acts, including bodily harm to the couple.”
Nick Buro and Bryan Hendry flew to the Caribbean and issued a joint statement praising the police and other authorities for their work in arresting the three suspects so quickly. They said their parents “lived a life that most of us can only dream of.” They also noted that Feb. 21, the day the boat was found, was Brandel’s birthday. She would have been 71.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/americas/couple-missing-boat-grenada.html and see the video below:
