FL FL - Isabella Hellmann, 41, catamaran off Cay Sal, SE of the FL Keys, 14 May 2017 #1 *GUILTY*

[msphilosopher]

I am wondering how controlling LB was with IH.

I am suspicious about her inability to contact her family by phone on this trip because:

1. Her phone broke (did he break it?)

2. The satellite phone on the cat was supposedly not working until 8.30pm on that tragic night.

IMO very controlling. It was stated that Isabella said he "changed" after the baby was born. Wanted to be in control of everything about the baby (paraphrasing). Seemed to be against Colombian traditions, etc.

 

[Estelle]

Please tell me if this is a possible scenario:

Assume LB is guilty of premeditated murder of IH. She has gone overboard. He now has to explain this. The story will be that something knocked the cat and it filled with water. But it turned half over and did not sink.

My latest theory is that he somehow slowly filled one hull with water which overbalanced the cat.

 

[msphilosopher]

The whole "business partner" thing and calling the business partner in the middle of an emergency doesnt sit well with me.

Visions of insurance schemes and sounds of "its done" come to mind.

Hope LE has looked into what boat insurance was placed on the boat and what life insurance policies were updated or taken out recently.

IF this was foul play, I bet LB was smart enough to not have an insurance policy on her. However, the boat policy wouldn't raise suspicion because what "boat captain" or profession dealing with "transporting people" wouldn't have insurance???

Whether this was an accident or foul play, LB most likely cashing out on boat insurance at some point.

 

[Hatfield]

Please tell me if this is a possible scenario:

Assume LB is guilty of premeditated murder of IH. She has gone overboard. He now has to explain this. The story will be that something knocked the cat and it filled with water. But it turned half over and did not sink.

My latest theory is that he somehow slowly filled one hull with water which overbalanced the cat.

It sounds plausible to me but I wonder if he thought the boat would sink and messed up by not realizing the cat was built to not sink.

I do know that some boats will put styrofoam inside the hull that is supposed to make them unsinkable. I think some pontoon boats do this in the pontoon parts. They will end up looking like his boat did but will not go to the bottom.

Not sure if the cat was one of those unsinkable types. It looked like one the way it was floating. He may have not known it would not totally sink and it messed up his plan.

Investigators really need to inspect the boat and look inside for evidence and maybe even a body.

 

[TTF14]

Politely and strongly disagree here.

Highly emotional means you deeply care and if you deeply care you're more alert to details. Everything that's been stated to the media by the "sister" is Dayana. The sister who had the emotional out burst that was reported was Elizabeth, Isabella's other sister. Dayana did admit that this situation turned "emotional" as they were told they would never see Emilia again, that he was leaving the country, police were there (intimidation factor IMO), picking up the rest of the babies things / apparent "stolen" things etc, while Isabella is still missing.

Becoming "highly emotional" at one point in the narrative doesn't make you incapable of relying information and remember things at other times in the narrative...

Having an accent doesn't mean you're incapable of understanding English or misunderstanding. This is a very well off family since they live in Delray (very wealthy community) and very educated family. Everything they post is in English only with little comments in Spanish like "lindos" which means cute / beautiful in Spanish. I walk my dogs here in south FL and all the time people approach my dogs "aww que lindo" and then we have a full blown conversation in English. I live here and it's very easily to tell who from south america has a hard time speaking / understanding English vs. those who don't... no body except potentially Isabella's parents IMO could have things "lost in translation / misinterpreted". Parents have not spoken out.

Now if we don't want to believe what the family says because "they're biased" then fine by me. I think it's very unfair for them to be labeled this way.

IMO / JMO

What I meant by my statement was that if information is relayed in an emotional way/state of mind while also having an accent, it may be misunderstood by the person receiving the information (i.e. the reporter). I definitely did not mean these people are incapable of understanding what it going on <3.

 

[TTF14]

BBM. IF she did agree.

I would be terrified on the open sea in the dark by myself (even if my experienced sailor hubby was sleeping below).

You beat me to it; this is exactly what I was going to say. I'd be terrified. And wasn't this the first time these two had sailed alone? So it's highly likely she never had that night shift before. I don't believe this story. It would have been more believable if it was in the middle of the day and he was taking a nap.

 

[Hatfield]

This may have been shared before. I found it interesting that they are saying they did not see any evidence of the boat being struck. Kind of implies they at least looked at the hull while there.

"Coast Guard Miami spokesman Eric Woodall told the Palm Beach Post that there was no evidence that the boat had been struck."

"Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that her body is in the boat, but said that no one has gone in the vessel because of its dangerous position underwater.

"

http://nypost.com/2017/05/25/fbi-investigating-case-of-newlywed-mom-missing-at-sea/

 

[bears10]

I am curious about their seemingly shot gun wedding. Was it the result of a fight of where to live? Did he agree to get married so he can become a citizen and they can live in the US as a family, but the whole time had a different plan? And the marriage was to appease Isabella for the time being? Maybe until he had the chance to take her on a sailing honeymoon?

Eta - I'm probably looking too much into it. I just think a lot of things about this guy are fishy. Id still like to know what website they met on and who persued who.

 

[TTF14]

I am curious about their seemingly shot gun wedding. Was it the result of a fight of where to live? Did he agree to get married so he can become a citizen and they can live in the US as a family, but the whole time had a different plan? And the marriage was to appease Isabella for the time being? Maybe until he had the chance to take her on a sailing honeymoon?

Great questions!

 

[Hatfield]

ok....been reading more and things are not adding up.

-If they left the harbor at 5:30pm, then why did she take the helm at 8pm. That is only 2 1/2 hours after they left the harbor. And why would he let her take the first night shift after leaving harbor?

Was he that tired that only 2 1/2 hours after leaving land he has to sleep. I dont think so. It doesnt make sense.

Also, so based on his statement below he says he awoke at 1am. So he was sleeping from 8pm to 1am. I dont think so. It means she was at the helm 5 hours. That seems really long without checking on her.
This all does not make any sense to me. Combined with the quick marriage and business partner stuff and the way he did not seem to give her family much time before he wanted to leave is very bothersome.

The whole thing doesnt sound right.

The only thing though is he surely relied on being rescued since he was in the raft. Maybe the business partner was on standby to rescue him if coast guard did not pull through for him.

I want to know where the business partner was during this time and if partner had access to a boat.

"Bennett told investigators Hellmann was wearing a life vest the last time he saw her, when he went below at about 8 p.m. May 15. The couple had left Havana Harbor at about 5:30 p.m., the Coast Guard said."

"He said he was sleeping below deck at about 1 a.m. and awoke after the boat struck something, then went topside but discovered his wife gone and the boat taking on water."


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/c...e-sea-authorities-say/3uWJS7CTyP09oFJAd7siKJ/

 

[TTF14]

ok....been reading more and things are not adding up.

-If they left the harbor at 5:30pm, then why did she take the helm at 8pm. That is only 2 1/2 hours after they left the harbor. And why would he let her take the first night shift after leaving harbor?

Was he that tired that only 2 1/2 hours after leaving land he has to sleep. I dont think so. It doesnt make sense.

Also, so based on his statement below he says he awoke at 1am. So he was sleeping from 8pm to 1am. I dont think so. It means she was at the helm 5 hours. That seems really long without checking on her.
This all does not make any sense to me. Combined with the quick marriage and business partner stuff and the way he did not seem to give her family much time before he wanted to leave is very bothersome.

The whole thing doesnt sound right.

The only thing though is he surely relied on being rescued since he was in the raft. Maybe the business partner was on standby to rescue him if coast guard did not pull through for him.

I want to know where the business partner was during this time and if partner had access to a boat.

"Bennett told investigators Hellmann was wearing a life vest the last time he saw her, when he went below at about 8 p.m. May 15. The couple had left Havana Harbor at about 5:30 p.m., the Coast Guard said."

"He said he was sleeping below deck at about 1 a.m. and awoke after the boat struck something, then went topside but discovered his wife gone and the boat taking on water."


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/c...e-sea-authorities-say/3uWJS7CTyP09oFJAd7siKJ/

Theoretically speaking, if someone were to figure out a way to disable a boat/get it to take on water, they probably were aiming to have it completely sink, not just sink half way. Are authorities making ANY effort to recover/search that boat?

 

[bears10]

I want to say someone posted that it took 3 hours for him to be rescued, is that correct? If so, that is a pretty long time to be on a raft in the ocean, relying on being saved. However, do we know for a fact that when he called for help is when he evacuated the cat?

 

[Hatfield]

Theoretically speaking, if someone were to figure out a way to disable a boat/get it to take on water, they probably were aiming to have it completely sink, not just sink half way. Are authorities making ANY effort to recover/search that boat?

Im thinking along the same lines and I am guessing he was unaware that this boat really would not sink all the way to the bottom.

I've seen pontoon boats before and how they put styrofoam inside the hull which keeps them from going to the bottom if they get a hole in the pontoon. Similar to how his boat looked floating.

I dont know if any investigators are going to make an attempt to find the boat again or not. I sure hope they do. The one article I read awhile ago said that the coast guard flagged the boat with another beacon but it has stopped putting out a signal so it would take a little work to locate the boat.

I really hope they do more investigating.

 

[TTF14]

I want to say someone posted that it took 3 hours for him to be rescued, is that correct? If so, that is a pretty long time to be on a raft in the ocean, relying on being saved. However, do we know for a fact that when he called for help is when he evacuated the cat?

Whatever time frame he gave, I would think it's his word, not verified fact.

 

[msphilosopher]

What I meant by my statement was that if information is relayed in an emotional way/state of mind while also having an accent, it may be misunderstood by the person receiving the information (i.e. the reporter). I definitely did not mean these people are incapable of understanding what it going on <3.

Ah ha! Did you listen / watch to the videos of Dayana and Isabella's Colombian friend being interviewed? Not difficult to understand... nothing "highly emotional" and accents not that thick to misunderstand -- imo

I'm glad you clarified though, I was thinking "daaaaaang TTF14 that's is kind of racist"

 

[TTF14]

Ah ha! Did you listen / watch to the videos of Dayana and Isabella's Colombian friend being interviewed? Not difficult to understand... nothing "highly emotional" and accents not that thick to misunderstand -- imo

I'm glad you clarified though, I was thinking "daaaaaang TTF14 that's is kind of racist"

No, I did not watch/listen to them. I was just imagining Gloria from Modern Family and projecting my ability to understand foreign accents on to the situation . (BTW, I looooove that accent)

 

[Hatfield]

I want to say someone posted that it took 3 hours for him to be rescued, is that correct? If so, that is a pretty long time to be on a raft in the ocean, relying on being saved. However, do we know for a fact that when he called for help is when he evacuated the cat?

From this article below, it was about 3 1/2 hours from time he was taking on water to rescue. 1am to 4:30 rescue. And yeah the part that seems almost legit is he was about 1000 yards from his boat in the raft. So it seems he did push away from the boat shortly after he made the rescue call because he was pretty far away from boat. Which makes me think he may have had someone that could rescue him if the Coast Guard did not pull through OR he was really relying on coast guard to find him.

"Bennett told authorities he and his wife, who have a 9-month-old daughter, were on a two-week vacation. He said he was sleeping below deck at about 1 a.m. and awoke after the boat struck something, then went topside but discovered his wife gone and the boat taking on water.
Bennett said he gathered an electronic beacon and an emergency transmitter and left the sinking 37-foot, 30-year-old catamaran for a life raft. The Coast Guard said a helicopter found him at about 4:30 that morning, about 1,000 yards from the vessel and in water 4,008 feet deep &#8212; about three-quarters of a mile &#8212; and flew him to Marathon.


"

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/c...e-sea-authorities-say/3uWJS7CTyP09oFJAd7siKJ/

 

[Hatfield]

Whatever time frame he gave, I would think it's his word, not verified fact.

Thats a really good point. It was all based on what he said.

The only thing we know for sure is the coast guard found him at 4:30 and he was 1000 yards from boat.

 

[JerseyGirl]

It's up to the owner to salvage the boat. LB did not salvage it n time and the beacon to locate it stopped working.

He made no attempts to salvage it so I have to assume that he wanted that cat gone.


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[TTF14]

It's up to the owner to salvage the boat. LB did not salvage it n time and the beacon to locate it stopped working.

He made no attempts to salvage it so I have to assume that he wanted that cat gone.


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I don't understand how in the case of a missing person the vessel is still the sole responsibility of the owner! That seems to weird. And a really GREAT way to murder someone.