PALM BEACH GARDENS — A judge Thursday refused to declare
Isabella Hellmann dead, saying she needs a declaration that authorities’ investigations into Hellman’s mysterious reported disappearance at sea are complete.
It’s been five months since the 41-year-old suburban Delray Beach real estate broker reportedly vanished at sea. On Thursday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Kathleen J. Kroll said she wouldn’t approve a request from Lewis Bennett, Hellmann’s husband,
for a “presumptive death certificate.”
That’s because while the Coast Guard called off its
four-day search, it and the FBI say they continue to conduct a missing-person investigation. Neither has said it suspects foul play.
“ ‘Not searching’ is not ‘no longer having an investigation of her death,’ ” Kroll told Bennett attorney Lee McElroy IV.
“That’s what I’m after, is closure,” Kroll said.
McElroy had submitted the thick Coast Guard package of documents related to the search that the Palm Beach Post
obtained this summer. Kroll said it wasn’t enough.
Kroll set a new hearing for the afternoon of Nov. 3
The judge also would not close out Bennett’s probate filing. McElroy had argued Hellmann’s modest estate didn’t require a full proceeding.
