Three men who had escaped from a prison in Grenada and were accused of hijacking an American couple’s yacht to flee have been charged with their murder, police said Thursday.
The couple, Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathy Brandel, 71, went missing while sailing off Grenada. They had spent the winter cruising the Caribbean on their catamaran called Simplicity, which was found abandoned in neighboring St Vincent and the Grenadines on February 21.
There was no indication in the latest police statement that the couple’s bodies had been recovered since Thursday.
Trevon Robertson, 23; Atiba Stanisclaus, 25; and Ron Mitchell, 30, face two counts of “murder intentionally causing the death of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel,” the Royal Grenada Police said.
Authorities from police forces in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines gave different ages and spellings of names for the escapees.
The men were also charged with escape from lawful custody, burglary, robbery and two counts of kidnapping. Mr. Stanislaus also faces a rape charge, the police said, but no details of those charges were released. The three men made their first court appearance on Thursday and are due back on March 27. The Royal Grenada Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police had said in a statement released on February 22 that three men who escaped from a prison in Grenada on February 18 and headed for St. Vincent using a yacht docked in Grenada’s St. George area.
The prisoners were arrested again on February 21, the same day the couple’s yacht was found. At the time, police said they were “currently working on evidence to suggest that the two occupants of the yacht may have been killed in the process.”
In a press conference on February 26, Commissioner Don McKenzie of the Royal Grenada Police that “information suggests that, while traveling between Grenada and St. Vincent, they dispersed the occupants.”
During a press conference on February 26, Junior Simmons, Inspector General of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police, said a joint investigation into the disappearance with Grenada police was ongoing and said the couple were presumed dead.
The investigation revealed that while sailing from Grenada, “the suspects committed various criminal acts, including physically harming the couple,” he said.
The couple, who had been married for 27 years, were “veteran cruisers,” according to the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, a nonprofit that brings together a community of long-distance cruising sailors. The pair were longtime members, the organization said in a statement, and “both contributed to the building of SDSA.”
In a joint family statement posted on the club’s website on February 27, Nick Buro, Ms Brandel’s son, and Bryan Hendry, Mr Hendry’s son, said that “if we have learned anything from this tragic event, it is that we know they left this world in a better place than they were before they were born.”
“Ralph and Kathy lived a life most of us can only dream of,” the message said. “Sailing the East Coast of the United States, living in their home, Simplicity, making friends with everyone they met, singing, dancing and laughing with our friends and family — that was Ralph and Kathy and that’s how we’ll remember them in our hearts. “
