American Couple Missing After Yacht Is Hijacked

Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry were on a sailing trip in the Caribbean
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2024 2:00 AM CST
Updated Feb 26, 2024 6:32 AM CST
US Couple Feared Dead in Grenada After Yacht Hijacked
Investigators from Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines stand aboard the yacht "Simplicity," that they say was hijacked by three escaped prisoners with two people aboard, in Calliaqua, St. Vincent, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024.   (AP Photo/Kenton X. Chance)

An American couple sailing off the coast of Grenada is feared dead after three escaped prisoners allegedly hijacked their catamaran yacht. The Virginia couple has been identified by their sailing club and family members as Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry, CNN reports. The couple spent a lot of time sailing during their retirement, and they were on a winter trip cruising the eastern Caribbean, USA Today reports. They'd sailed from Virginia to Antigua on their yacht, Simplicity, and were last heard from on February 18. That's the same day three men, ages 19, 25, and 30, escaped from their holding cell in Grenada. Authorities believe they hijacked the yacht there before sailing to the nearby island of St. Vincent, where the yacht was found anchored and abandoned, Brandel and Hendry nowhere to be found.

While friends and family are holding out hope the couple could still be alive, a GoFundMe campaign raising money for their relatives says Brandel and Hendry lost their lives, noting there was "chilling evidence of a violent struggle" aboard the yacht. The escaped prisoners were arrested in St. Vincent on Wednesday. Brandel's son describes the couple as veteran sailors who bought Simplicity years ago after selling their house. "It was their home," he says. "Everything they had, they owned, was on that boat. It was their life." (More Grenada stories.)

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