Yacht Jacking Suspected In Murders Of Virginia Couple On Dream Voyage

The island community of Grenada has been gripped by tension following the dramatic escape and subsequent recapture of three prison inmates linked to the disappearance, and suspected murder, of a retired American couple.

The Royal Grenada Police Force issued a statement implicating the escapees in the potential homicide. “The investigation has led to leads supporting the grim possibility that the two yacht occupants have been killed,” announced the RGPF. Fears are mounting that the victims are American nationals Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel—avid sailors enjoying their golden years aboard the vessel named “Simplicity.”

Concerned relatives and friends have identified the sailors as a married couple from Virginia, both in their 60s, who had been living out their retirement dream on the open seas.

Authorities have revealed that the suspects, Ron Mitchell, aged 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25, had originally been incarcerated for violent robbery charges when they broke out from the South St. George’s Police Station on February 18. Notably, Mitchell was also accused of rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, and causing harm before the escape took place.

The fugitives’ run from justice concluded in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where law enforcement discovered them. In what unfolded as an international search operation, the missing couple’s yacht was later found anchored and seemingly abandoned. A good Samaritan spotted it off a beach on the southern coast of St. Vincent, as per reports from the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, to which Hendry and Brandel belonged.

This case has left the sailing community and their close-knit circle of sailors in shock, waiting anxiously for further developments in what has already become a tragic narrative of their missing compatriots.