Isabella Hellmann mystery spans three continents, raises questions
July 19, 2017
On Monday, a British journalist knocked on the door of a home in Hythe, a coastal Hampshire town about 85 miles southwest of London.
We have been told not to say anything, the resident told the reporter, sent by The Palm Beach Post. He lives here some of the time, because we are his parents, but not all the time.
He is Lewis Bennett, whereabouts unknown. The 40-year-old man has a mysterious back story, no permanent home or confirmed means of income, and a little girl who turns 1 this month and whose mother vanished at sea.
His story and that of 41-year-old suburban Delray Beach real estate broker Isabella Hellmann takes place in an array of locales that would fill the board game Risk, with push pins in no fewer than nine countries and possessions spanning three continents.
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ISABELLA VANISHES: A TIMELINE
November 1975: Luz Stella Isabella Rodriguez is born in Colombia. She is believed to have moved to Florida some time in the 1990s.
April 1977: Lewis Bennett is born in Dorset area of southwest England. He attends public schools and at some point moves to Australia.
February 2002: Isabella marries William Hellmann. The two begin divorce proceedings in August 2012 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in Delray Beach. Divorce is final in August 2014.
May 2011: Lewis Bennett registers Next Generation Solar in Australia.
November 2013: In St. Maarten, in the Caribbean, Bennett buys catamaran described as a 37-foot Fountaine Pajot Orana 44. He registers it in Australia.
2015: Isabella Hellmann and Lewis Bennett meet online.
August 2015: Bennett registers Next Generation Solar in Florida.
July 2016: Amelia is born.
January 2017: The couple buys a condo at the Pine Ridge at Delray Beach development for $123,000.
February: The couple marry in Atlanta.
April 30: Isabella flies to St. Maarten to meet Bennett and his catamaran, the Surf into Summer, which had been there since April 8. 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.
May 14: The couple reportedly leaves Varadero, a resort town about 75 miles east of Havana, at 5:30 p.m.
May 15: Bennett contacts the Coast Guard around 1 a.m. to say the boat has struck something and is sinking and Hellmann is missing. Hours later, he is rescued and flown to the Florida Keys.
May 18: Coast Guard officially calls off search.
May 19: Coast Guard responds to Bennett request for a letter of presumed death, saying it doesnt have authority.
May 23: At condo, officials, possibly FBI investigators, search Bennetts car, and interview him. Sometime before June 1, FBI evidence tape seals the door.
May 26: Coast Guard and FBI confirm to Palm Beach Post that they are conducting a missing persons investigation.
May 27: Bennett claims he just returned from searching hospitals in Cuba for Isabella.
May 28: In confrontation to which police are called, Hellmanns sister screams accusations at Bennett, who had come to pick up Emelia at the familys Boca Raton home.
May 30: Dailymail.com posts interview with Bennett at his suburban Delray Beach condominium in which he professes his innocence.
June 14: Isabelles sister, Adriana Difeo of Jupiter, files in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in Palm Beach Gardens to take over Isabellas finances.
June 16: Investigators spend eight hours searching the couples condo and leave with several boxes.
June 21: Court papers are formally served on Bennetts family home in Southampton, England.
June 28: Bennett says in a Facebook posting he has gone to England with Amelia. After receiving both supportive and critical comments, he takes down the post. He later closes his Facebook page altogether.
July 10: Bennetts Boca Raton lawyer formally files to challenge sisters conservatorship effort.
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