FL FL - Isabella Hellmann, 41, catamaran off Cay Sal, FL Keys,14 May 2017 #2 *GUILTY*

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Ellmau said:
So he had time to save his stolen goods but not to find his wife...
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I'm thinking worse then that, I think he packed the lifeboat before he killed her and sank his boat.
Put all of the stuff he wanted to save in the lifeboat way ahead of time. He never went to bed! Moo


[emoji237]Always My Own Opinion[emoji4]
 
WVWoman said:
I'm thinking worse then that, I think he packed the lifeboat before he killed her and sank his boat.
Put all of the stuff he wanted to save in the lifeboat way ahead of time. He never went to bed! Moo


[emoji237]Always My Own Opinion[emoji4]
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I never believed his bedtime story and how Isabella sat watch from 8:30 that night after leaving Cuba at 5:30pm.

Also the phone calls to the business partner while sitting in the raft struck me as odd and wonder if he too is part of this.

I'd also like to know where the baby is. I would assume the FBI lured him back to the States and he came alone. Last report was that he and the baby were in the U.K.


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I always thought it was an accident. But I have to admit he sure had time to fill that life raft, even 14 gallons of water. Sounds pretty fishy now.
I wonder how he sank the boat by himself? Sad.
 
The FBI said Bennett is set to appear in federal court in Key West on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. He was arrested on Monday, without incident, in West Palm Beach, on a federal charge of transporting stolen goods worth more than $5,000.

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news...al-coin-theft-charges/cRJXKKFC13NZlkRNBl3KYN/

additions to the timeline:

2015: Isabella Hellmann and Lewis Bennett meet online.

August 2015: Bennett registers Next Generation Solar in Florida.

September 2015 - The owner of the ship Kitty R, based in St. Maarten, bought 617 collectible coins for the equivalent of about $41,000 in U.S. dollars, valued at $100,000.

May 5 or May 6, 2016 - coins stolen around this time.

May 8, 2016 - Bennett, as First Mate, filed a police report in St. Maarten saying the coins were stolen sometime either on May 5 or early May 6, when Bennett and the owner were not aboard. The victim says the gold and silver coins were stolen by breaking open the floor of the vessel beneath a pallet of food.

May 10, 2016 - Bennett left St. Maarten after the stolen items were reported.

July 2016 - Amelia is born.

January 2017: The couple buys a condo at the Pine Ridge at Delray Beach development for $123,000.

February 2017 - Bennett and Hellman get married in Atlanta.

March 18, 2017 - Bennett flew to St. Maarten

April 8, 2017 - Government officials in St. Maarten confirmed that Bennett’s boat came in on April 8. Bennett flew back to Fort Lauderdale.

April 19, 2017 - Bennett leaves for St. Maarten.

April 29: Isabella flies to St. Maarten to meet Bennett and his catamaran, the Surf into Summer, which had been there since April 8.

April 30: The couple sail that day. Facebook postings show her May 1 in Puerto Rico and May 2 in the British Virgin Islands. Those are her last public postings, claiming her phone broke at some point.

May 14: The couple reportedly leaves Varadero, a resort town about 75 miles east of Havana, at 5:30 p.m.

The contents of the backpack were not seen by rescuers, but the Coast Guard inventoried the rest of the items on the raft: a suitcase; a backpack; unexpended parachute flares; buoys; 14 gallons of water; a homing device, and nine plastic tubes which were found to contain some 225 silver coins , which included 158 English silver coins and 77 Canadian Maple Leaf coins with a $4,200 value.

On June 16, a search of Bennett's home turned up a cache of 162 gold coins hidden inside a pair of boat shoes in his closet; those were worth about $26,100.

At least 230 stolen coins, about a third of the total, have not been recovered by investigators.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ng-sea-arrested-coin-theft.html#ixzz4r8y5sOBp
http://cbs12.com/news/local/lewis-bennet-husband-of-missing-delray-beach-mom-arrested
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...FL-Keys-14-May-2017-2&p=13515439#post13515439


bbm

So he hid the coins for a year somewhere in the Caribbean, most likely in or around St. Maarten. Then he flew back in April 2017 (most likely to locate and secure the coins in the backpacks/suitcases), then came back to the US and 11 days later left with Isabella for their "delayed honeymoon" sailing trip.
 
Where is the baby now? Has Isabella's family been able to see her?
 
Wow! This is unexpected.

Yes, it does sound like he has the coins hidden in the Carribean. I wonder where. Was his business partner that he called (from the raft? Can't remember) located in St. Maarten? If so maybe he had the coins.

Why did Isabella have to go with him to bring the boat back to Florida? I am assuming he killed her because she found out about the coins (opinion only), but if she wasn't aware of them before the trip, why didn't he just fly over and get them himself? That seems easier. When you fly to the US from the Carribean, do you have to go through customs? If so, would he have to declare the coins? Maybe he was afraid his stolen treasure would be discovered at the airport.

This is all so sad for Isabella's family and her little daughter. I hope that he has to stay in jail until his trial and I hope Isabella's family can petition for at least temporary custody since they were the side of the family most involved in her life before her mom died.
 
Isabella's sister commented on the news:

"There's so many things in my mind, in our mind, that we don't know what to think or what to expect from him. We never stopped talking to him, he was the one who stopped talking to us. We were always here for him. I felt very sad, because I didn't think he was that kind of person."

She did not know anything about Bennett's coins, but says her niece told her after the news of his arrest that he once told her he liked to collect coins from all over the world.

Dayana said she was surprised about the items he chose to take with him from the boat. The FBI said he had two backpacks and a suitcase in the life raft along with un-expended parachute flares, bouys, 14 gallons of water, a secondary EPIRB device, and the plastic tubes with the silver coins.

"It just surprised me cause if it was an accident or whatever why would you have all those things, Our life has changed. We are not the same. The only thing always on our mind, my sister, Emelia, what happened, where is she?"

http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/s...-for-stealing-100000-in-gold-and-silver-coins
 
SuperTmo said:
Wow! This is unexpected.

Yes, it does sound like he has the coins hidden in the Carribean. I wonder where. Was his business partner that he called (from the raft? Can't remember) located in St. Maarten? If so maybe he had the coins.
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I believe the business partner was in Australia; because Bennett called him at least twice from the life raft.
 
SuperTmo said:
Wow! This is unexpected.

Yes, it does sound like he has the coins hidden in the Carribean. I wonder where. Was his business partner that he called (from the raft? Can't remember) located in St. Maarten? If so maybe he had the coins.

Why did Isabella have to go with him to bring the boat back to Florida? I am assuming he killed her because she found out about the coins (opinion only), but if she wasn't aware of them before the trip, why didn't he just fly over and get them himself? That seems easier. When you fly to the US from the Carribean, do you have to go through customs? If so, would he have to declare the coins? Maybe he was afraid his stolen treasure would be discovered at the airport.

This is all so sad for Isabella's family and her little daughter. I hope that he has to stay in jail until his trial and I hope Isabella's family can petition for at least temporary custody since they were the side of the family most involved in her life before her mom died.
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He can't fly with the coins, he would have to declare them coming into the US. The only way he would be able to smuggle them to here would be by personal watercraft, his boat.

I don't know much about having to declare things off a personal boat but I assume you don't have to go through customs that way.
 
The article said LB reported the coins stolen, and that the owner didn't report it since it wasn't covered under his insurance. Does that mean the owner didn't report it to the police at all, as in had no part in the police report? Or was LB just the one that made the initial call and the owner was part of the reporting process but just didn't bother reporting it to his insurer?

Why would LB even bother reporting it if he was the thief? He had nothing to gain by doing that.

How did the FBI find out about the coins if they were reported stolen in St. Maarten? Maybe just through their investigation they found out about the report? It would be funny if he reported the coins stolen assuming it would make him look innocent but ended up ruining his life down the road.
 
JerseyGirl said:
I believe the business partner was in Australia; because Bennett called him at least twice from the life raft.
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Thank you for clarifying. I hope he has been investigated. I wonder what he knows.
 
inmyhumbleopinion said:
"According to the federal complaint, the owner of the ship Kitty R, based in the Caribbean nation of St. Maarten, said that in September 2015, he had bought 617 collectible coins for the equivalent of about $41,000 in U.S. dollars.
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I'd be interested in knowing what the coins are.

The man reported that Bennett had been a crew member in May 2016 when gold and silver coins stored inside plastic tubes were stolen by someone who had broken open the floor beneath a pallet of food. The owner said he did not file a claim because the items were not listed among covered items on his insurance policy.
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Were they supplied in the tubes by the dealer or simply put in them later?

IME, coins supplied in tubes are very likely to be bullion coins bought in bulk, eg 50 gold sovereigns in a tube sold as a package. Bullion coins are not "collectable" since they are minted in large quantities to be held as stores of value.

Also, 617 coins for $41,000 means the average value is only $66.45. I can't think of any gold coins currently on the market which would cost that sort of price, so the bulk of the coins is going to be silver. Similarly, I can't think of any silver "collectable" coins unless we are talking about smuggling stolen coins or coins recovered from wrecks and similar.
 
SuperTmo said:
The article said LB reported the coins stolen, and that the owner didn't report it since it wasn't covered under his insurance. Does that mean the owner didn't report it to the police at all, as in had no part in the police report? Or was LB just the one that made the initial call and the owner was part of the reporting process but just didn't bother reporting it to his insurer?

Why would LB even bother reporting it if he was the thief? He had nothing to gain by doing that.

How did the FBI find out about the coins if they were reported stolen in St. Maarten? Maybe just through their investigation they found out about the report? It would be funny if he reported the coins stolen assuming it would make him look innocent but ended up ruining his life down the road.
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Yup, I believe he reported them stolen to make himself look innocent. I don't believe the boat owner reported it to his insurance company because the coins weren't' insured.

I also don't know if the owner was even in St. Maarten at the time. He could have had a crew there to maintain the boat and that Bennett left St. Maarten a few days after reporting the stolen coins.
 
SuperTmo said:
The article said LB reported the coins stolen, and that the owner didn't report it since it wasn't covered under his insurance. Does that mean the owner didn't report it to the police at all, as in had no part in the police report? Or was LB just the one that made the initial call and the owner was part of the reporting process but just didn't bother reporting it to his insurer?
Click to expand...

As mentioned above, I'd like to know what these coins actually are. One reason the owner might not have reported them missing is that they might have been stolen by him in the first place. They might also have been acquired by another route, eg wreck diving, that might be illegal in some jurisdictions.

Unfortunately the US coins and antiquities market is the biggest in the world for looted and otherwise dodgy items and artefacts. Much of it is currently coming from Iraq and Syria, but I'd bet some of it is also coming in from Central and South America and the Caribbean.
 
One article above said of the 225 silver coins with him in his raft most were English silver coins and the rest were Canadian Maple leaf coins. Would there be more value if the coins were sold for the metal vs the collectibility of the coin?

It sounds like those are all the coins he had with him when he was rescued, so I wonder how the coins he had hidden in his shoes at the condo got there. They were found during the search warrant, right?
 
MelmothTheLost said:
As mentioned above, I'd like to know what these coins actually are. One reason the owner might not have reported them missing is that they might have been stolen by him in the first place. They might also have been acquired by another route, eg wreck diving, that might be illegal in some jurisdictions.

Unfortunately the US coins and antiquities market is the biggest in the world for looted and otherwise dodgy items and artefacts. Much of it is currently coming from Iraq and Syria, but I'd bet some of it is also coming in from Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Click to expand...

The coins were reported missing, they just weren't reported to the insurnace compnay because the coins were not covered by the insurance.

The gold and silver coins have a value higher than what they are marked. If it's a $1 gold coin, it's worth a lot more than $1 in gold.

__

The condition of a coin has great relevance to rare coin collectors and coins bought for their numismatic value. However by definition bullion Coins/Bars are valued by their Purity and Mass (weight) and have very little to no numismatic value.

Therefore for Bullion Investors the condition of a coin does not matter. However spotless shiny coins are naturally more appealing to most people compared to tarnished / scratched coins / bars. This means that well maintained coins / bars can be more liquid (easier to sell) in the secondary market.

https://www.silverbullion.com.sg/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=28
 
SuperTmo said:
One article above said of the 225 silver coins with him in his raft most were English silver coins and the rest were Canadian Maple leaf coins. Would there be more value if the coins were sold for the metal vs the collectibility of the coin?
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The only really "collectable" English silver coins are historic ones and their value is subject to all sorts of variables including condition. If the rest were Canadian Maple Leaf coins, the odds are the English ones are actually silver Britannias which contain 1 troy ounce of fine silver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_(coin)

Note this:

"All of our silver Britannia coins can be purchased individually or in tubes of 25 coins."

http://www.royalmint.com/bullion/products/the-britannia-2017-one-ounce-silver-bullion-coin

Individual bullion coins tend to sell for about 10% over the metal value, and that premium falls the more you buy. So if you buy 100 units the premium may only be 3%. This means that the coins are worth more than melting them down into ingots.
 
Hmmm, I assumed the coins were American and not British/English, with some Canadian mixed in. I only assumed they were American because their value was reported in American dollars.

Did anyone read that they specifically said British/English coins versus American?

__

I see some now:

Coins recovered from a life raft: 158 “Year of the Horse” English silver coins and 77 Canadian Maple Leaf coins with a $4,200 value.

The coins “only account for a portion of the total amount of coins stolen,” the affidavit said.

A search of the apartment on June 16 found more gold coins – 162 of them – in a small case, hidden in a pair of boat shoes.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/p...ett-arrested-stolen-coins-20170828-story.html
 
Silver bullion coins are pretty cheap! That surprises me.
 
JerseyGirl said:
The coins were reported missing, they just weren't reported to the insurnace compnay because the coins were not covered by the insurance.
Click to expand...

Indeed. But even if they were not insured you might still report the theft to the police in case they ever turned up again.

The gold and silver coins have a value higher than what they are marked. If it's a $1 gold coin, it's worth a lot more than $1 in gold.
Click to expand...

Indeed again, however most historic coins were originally circulating legal tender and their actual value matched their face value. The gold sovereign, from 1817 at least, had an (unmarked) face value of £1. So long as coinage was issued in precious metals the value of a coin reflected the actual value of the metal in it. Once coins were issued in base metals their face values diverged over time from the value of the metal of which they were originally made.

The condition of a coin has great relevance to rare coin collectors and coins bought for their numismatic value. However by definition bullion Coins/Bars are valued by their Purity and Mass (weight) and have very little to no numismatic value.

Therefore for Bullion Investors the condition of a coin does not matter. However spotless shiny coins are naturally more appealing to most people compared to tarnished / scratched coins / bars. This means that well maintained coins / bars can be more liquid (easier to sell) in the secondary market.

https://www.silverbullion.com.sg/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=28[/QUOTE]

There's another type of precious metal coin, the proof, which is twice stamped and has a very shiny flan behind the design. These are more attractive and minted in much smaller quantities (sometimes fewer than 1,000) so tend to retail at a significant premium to the bullion version. These definitely are collectable.

The Canadian Mint has been issuing special issue proof coins for donkey's years.

http://www.mint.ca/store/coins/2-oz...una-of-canada---mintage-4000-2017-prod3002533
http://www.mint.ca/store/coins/99.9...e-majestic-elk---mintage-400-2017-prod2960017
 
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