Grenada charges prison escapees with murder of American couple missing since alleged yacht hijacking

Three inmates who escaped from prison in Grenada have been charged with killing two Americans after allegedly hijacking their yacht last month to flee to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, police said Thursday.

The Royal Granada Police Force said in a statement that Ron Mitchell, Atiba Stanisclaus and Trevon Robertson were each charged with two counts of capital murder over the presumed deaths of Americans Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel.

The three suspects have also been charged with escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery and kidnapping. Stanislaus was separately charged with one count of rape.

The latest police update did not make clear who Stanislaus is accused of raping and did not provide information on whether the bodies of the couple had been recovered.

Hendry and Brandel, based in Virginia, were living out a long-held dream of cruising the Caribbean in their sailing yacht called Simplicity, to Antigua when they went missing, according to their  yacht club, the Salty Dawg Sailing Association.

Their vessel was found abandoned in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines on February 21, with the husband and wife nowhere to be found, the yacht club said.

Authorities in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines launched joint investigations to track down the suspects who allegedly left behind a violent scene on the missing couple’s yacht, including blood stains.

Last week, Grenada police commissioner Don McKenzie said in a news conference the couple was likely thrown overboard during the hijacking, and information suggests the escapees “disposed of the occupants” while traveling between Grenada and St. Vincent, about 80 miles away.

Their alleged killers committed “several criminal acts including bodily harm to the couple” while sailing, the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force said last week. When authorities eventually recovered the yacht, the scene was “consistent with signs of violence,” the police force said.

All three suspects made their first court appearance in St. George’s Magistrate’s Court in Grenada on Thursday and were remanded to prison. They are due back in court on March 27.

‘They brought light’

The couple’s disappearance has left family and loved ones reeling.

Hendry’s son, Bryan Hendry, and Brandel’s son, Nick Buro, released a joint statement last month, remembering their parents for living with love, faith and sailing.

“Ralph and Kathy lived a life that most of us can only dream of, sailing the eastern coast of the United States, living on their home Simplicity, making friends with everyone they encountered, singing, dancing and laughing with friends and family – that’s who Ralph and Kathy were and that’s how they will be remembered in our hearts,” the statement read.

“If we have learned anything from this tragic event, it’s that we know they left this world in a better place than it was before they were born.”

Buro and Bryan Hendry called their parents the strongest people they will ever know, saying they “strive to be even half as wonderful as them.”

“While the end of their life may have been dark, they brought light, and that light will never be extinguished from the hearts and minds of the people who knew, loved and cared so deeply about them,” the statement read.

Buro said his mother and stepfather were veteran boaters who had been planning the trip – their first cruise of the Caribbean – for years.

“They were super careful to be safe all the time,” Buro said. “Everywhere they went everything they did, safety was their top, top concern. So this unfortunate accident, I think, it came out of nowhere for them.”

The couple sold their home and bought Simplicity years ago, throwing themselves into an enthralling life on the water, he said.

“It was their home. Everything they had, they owned, was on that boat. It was their life,” he said. “Kathy worked her whole life and then retired. Ralph worked in financial services and continued to work from the boat. But really what they did was … choose a lifestyle that most of us would never imagine could be done. And they loved every minute of it and they saw many parts of the world and just lived a life of joy and love.”