Man ‘killed wife on honeymoon cruise’
A FORMER Gold Coast engineer has been charged with murdering his wife on their honeymoon cruise after she disappeared at sea near the Bahamas.
Lewis Bennett, 41, was charged by the FBI with murdering his Colombian-born wife Isabella Hellman, 41, in May last year.
Bennett holds a dual British and Australian citizenship and lived on the Gold Coast after becoming a citizen in 2013 when he registered a company.
He was charged in a court in Miami and was also sentenced to seven months in jail for transporting rare coins, according to local reports.
Bennett had told investigators his wife was lost at sea when their 12m catamaran, Surf into Summer, was involved in an accident.
He said it was struck by an unknown object.
The FBI has filed a second-degree murder charge and alleges he damaged the boat from the inside, causing flooding to the catamaran.
Bennett had claimed to have woken up about 1am on May 15 after he could not find his wife and then jumped on to a life raft, in international waters west of the Bahamas.
The Bulletin last year reported the first person Bennett called on discovering his wife had fallen overboard was a friend on the Gold Coast.
The friend then called volunteer coast guards at Southport, who alerted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority who, in turn, forwarded the information on to US coast guards.
Bennett was later rescued by the US Coast Guard helicopter and a search for Ms Hellman lasted three days before it was called off.
The rare coins were found in the life raft after Bennett was rescued, which were allegedly stolen from a boat Bennett had been a crew member of a year earlier.
The coins had a value of around $100,000 according to reports from the boat owner.
The couple have a daughter together but she was not on the boat at the time.
FBI special agent James Kelley in an affidavit alleges Bennett “knowingly and unlawfully” killed his wife.
Bennett was interviewed at his home in Delray Beach, Florida, in May last year.
He told investigators he had travelled to Puerto Rico and other islands prior to arriving in Cuba.
He claimed they were planning to travel to Key West or Fort Lauderdale and before he went to sleep he put the catamaran on “autopilot” towards Florida.
Bennett claimed he had gone to the cabin to sleep when the catamaran struck an “unknown object”.
He said he had asked his wife to “watch” and wake him if required. He fled to the life raft from the boat 45 minutes to an hour after waking up.
When he escaped to the life raft he used a satellite phone to call Hellman’s sister and a person in Australia, urging them to call the coast guard.
The FBI alleges he only activated his satellite phone on the final leg of the voyage “to ensure his own rescue and survival after murdering his wife and intentionally scuttling his catamaran”.
Five days after his interview with officials, Bennett purchased one-way flights to the UK with his child. He did not tell Hellman’s family they were leaving.
In September last year Bennett also made, through his lawyers, a request for a presumptive death certificate for his wife, which the FBI alleges is “extremely early”.
Special agent Kelley said in the documents that Bennett would be entitled to the house owned by Hellman in Florida and any bank accounts she had.