Husband of Florida Mom Who Vanished at Sea During Boating Trip Is Charged With Murder

Federal investigators have charged Lewis Bennett with murdering his wife of three months, Isabella Hellman, the Florida mother who disappeared last May from aboard a catamaran in the Atlantic Ocean they allege was “intentionally scuttled.”

Hellmann, a 41-year-old real estate broker, vanished while on a belated honeymoon with Bennett. The couple departed from St. Maarten in the Caribbean and traveled to Puerto Rico and Cuba before heading back to Florida.

The federal complaint, obtained by PEOPLE, alleges Bennett, who was rescued from a life raft by the Coast Guard, told investigators he was asleep below the deck of their boat when he heard the vessel hit something soon before his wife’s disappearance.

The vessel was on auto-pilot at the time, Bennett, a 41-year-old dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Australia, allegedly told the FBI.

After emerging topside, he said, there was no trace of Hellmann. He said she was wearing a life vest when he last saw her, the complaint alleges.



SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS