Three males who escaped from a jail in Grenada and had been accused of hijacking an American couple’s yacht to flee have been charged with homicide, police stated Thursday.
The couple, Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathy Brandel, 71, went lacking whereas crusing off the coast of Grenada. That they had spent the winter cruising the Caribbean of their catamaran named Simplicity, which was discovered deserted in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines on February 21.
The most recent police assertion doesn’t point out that the couple’s our bodies had been recovered on Thursday.
Trevon Robertson, 23; Atiba Stanisclaus, 25; and Ron Mitchell, 30, face two counts of “manslaughter by deliberately inflicting the demise of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel,” Royal Grenada police stated.
Police authorities in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have given completely different ages and names for the refugees.
The lads had been additionally charged with escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, theft and two counts of kidnapping; Mr. Stanisclaus can be accused of rape, police stated, however no particulars got about these allegations. The three males appeared in courtroom for the primary time on Thursday and are due again on March 27. Royal Grenada Police didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Police had stated in an announcement launched on February 22 that three males had escaped from a jail in Grenada on February 18 and had been heading to St. Vincent utilizing a yacht docked within the St. George space of Grenada.
The prisoners had been recaptured on February 21, the identical day the couple’s yacht was discovered. Police stated on the time that they had been “presently investigating proof that the 2 occupants of the yacht might have been killed.”
At a press convention on February 26, Commissioner Don McKenzie of the Royal Grenada Police Power stated that “data suggests that in their journey between Grenada and St. Vincent they eliminated the occupants.”
At a press convention on February 26, Junior Simmons, Chief Inspector of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Power, stated the joint investigation into the disappearance with Grenada Police was ongoing, and he stated the couple was presumed lifeless.
The investigation revealed that whereas crusing from Grenada, the suspects “dedicated a number of prison offenses, together with bodily hurt to the couple,” he stated.
The couple, who had been married for 27 years, had been “skilled cruisers,” in accordance with the Salty Dawg Crusing Affiliation, a nonprofit group that brings collectively a group of sailors who take long-distance cruises on their boats. The couple had been longtime members, the group stated in an announcement, and “they each contributed to constructing the SDSA”
In a joint household assertion on the affiliation’s web site on February 27, Nick Buro, Ms Brandel’s son, and Bryan Hendry, Mr Hendry’s son, stated that “if we have now realized something from this tragic occasion, it’s that we understanding that they left this world a greater place than earlier than they had been born.
“Ralph and Kathy lived a life that almost all of us can solely dream of,” the publish stated. “Crusing the East Coast of the US, dwelling of their residence of Simplicity, making buddies with everybody they encountered, singing, dancing and laughing with family and friends – that’s who Ralph and Kathy had been and that’s how they are going to be remembered in our hearts . ”
