WHAAAT? Coast Guard ‘loses’ boat where new wife ‘went overboard’

Isabella Hellman has been missing since May 15

The new bride and mom who purportedly went overboard from her husband’s boat last month is still missing — and now, so is the boat where she was last seen alive.

According to WPTV, the Coast Guard has confirmed they have lost track of the catamaran Isabella Hellman was sailing on with her husband near the Bahamas when he claims it crashed into something and she fell overboard.

As Crime Online previously reported, Hellman and her husband of three months, Lewis Bennett, were sailing alone on his catamaran on May 15 when he says he was awakened from his sleep by the boat hitting something.

Bennett told police that when he went above deck to see what was going on, the catamaran was taking water and there was no sign of his wife. The couple has a nine-month-old baby who was not with them on their sailing trip.

Bennett made an emergency call and escaped on a life raft. The Coast Guard found him hours later floating in deep water.

Investigators reportedly examined the boat and could not determine if the boat had truly struck another object. Coast Guard Miami spokesman Eric Woodall had previously told the Palm Beach Post that the catamaran was partially submerged in the Atlantic, and that investigators did not board the boat due to safety hazards — they examined it from the outside.

This week, the Coast Guard told WPTV that the boat’s electronic beacon has stopped working and that its location remains unknown. The agency said that it’s Bennett’s responsibility to locate and retrieve the boat.

The FBI has confirmed it has questioned Bennet in connection to his wife’s disappearance, but no law enforcement agency involved in the investigation has confirmed if he is being treated as a suspect or if Isabella is being considered a victim of foul play.

 

Photo: WBTV screenshot