Family of Delray mom missing at sea seeks help via social media

The family and friends of Isabella Hellmann, the Delray Beach woman reported missing at sea nearly three weeks ago, have mounted a social media campaign to help them uncover new information.

The family believes Hellmann’s husband, Lewis Bennett, left the country with the couple’s 11-month-old daughter Emilia, said Hellmann’s sister, Dayana Rodriguez.

Bennett, a 40-year-old engineer, has British and Australian citizenship.

“We just want [Emilia] back, just want to see her. It’s been a week since I last saw her,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the family is clinging to hope Hellmann, 41, a real estate agent, is still alive. She said the family is grateful for the outpouring of support from at least 560 followers of the Facebook page titled ‘FindIsabella’ with the hashtag ‘BringEmiliaback.’

Hellmann disappeared on May 14 while on a catamaran with Bennett. The couple had recently married and were on their honeymoon. They met several years ago online.

Bennett told authorities he was below deck and believes she may have been jolted overboard when the vessel hit something about 30 miles west of the Bahamas and began to capsize.

Bennett used an emergency radio to call authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard found him floating in a life raft.

The Coast Guard later attached an electronic beacon to the vessel as part of the investigation but news reports have indicated the device has stopped working and the location of the catamaran is now unknown. However, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, Marilyn Fajardo, on Tuesday could not confirm that.

The Coast Guard is working with the FBI to piece together the events surrounding Hellmann’s disappearance, but both organizations have declined repeatedly to comment beyond saying that the investigation is active.

The couple shared a condominium in Delray Beach. Authorities on May 27 took away several items in boxes marked as evidence, according to a WPEC-CBS12 report. The contents appeared to be inflatable marine equipment, possibly a life vest, according to the report.

On May 28, Bennett traveled to his in-laws home in Boca Raton, and brought Emilia with him. He asked Rodriguez if he could retrieve several items from the house, including an IPad and an engagement ring, claiming that those items were taken from his condominium by his wife’s family, according to a Boca Raton police report.

Rodriguez denied that anyone had taken the items and invited Bennett inside, but an argument quickly broke out between Bennett and another sister, Elizabeth Rodriguez, who repeatedly shouted that he killed her sister, according to the report.

Police were called and Bennett was asked to leave.