Video shows tense exchange over baby
Family of woman missing at sea begs Bennett not to take girl.
BOCA RATON — A distraught grandmother throws herself on Lewis Bennett in the driveway of the woman’s Boca Raton home.
“Don’t take my baby. Don’t take my baby,” Amparo Alvarez sobs in Spanish before staggering away and collapsing. Inside Bennett’s car is the woman’s granddaughter.
“You already killed my sister. What else do you want. Do you want to kill my mom? Right now?” Dayana Rodriguez tells Bennett.
The tense exchange, captured on Boca Raton police body-camera video and obtained this week by The Palm Beach Post, came 13 days after Isabella Hellmann vanished at sea. Federal prosecutors also say Bennett killed her.
Bennett would insist from the start that he awoke on his catamaran on May 15, 2017, west of the Bahamas to find the vessel taking on water and his wife, a suburban Delray Beach real-estate broker, gone.
But in the May 28, 2017, confrontation, Dayana Rodriguez tells Bennett, “You (expletive) killed my sister. We already know. We already know. You’re getting investigated.”
Bennett holds out his hands. “Obviously. But there’s nothing to investigate,” he responds.
Moments later, Bennett would drive off with Emelia, then 10 months old.
Hellmann’s family would not see Emelia again until May of this year, on the anniversary of her mother’s disappearance, and only via live internet video from England.
Prosecutors have said Bennett flew with her to the United Kingdom soon after the confrontation. Since then, the baby has been with Bennett’s parents.
Bennett came back to Florida in August 2017 and was arrested on a charge that, when rescued, he had $36,000 in coins, part of a trove stolen a year earlier from a yacht in the Caribbean.
In February, the day he was to be sentenced after pleading guilty on that count, he was charged with murdering his wife. His trial is set for December in federal court in Miami.
The Boca Raton police video was mentioned in documents federal prosecutors filed last week, and was obtained by The Post via public records. The video lasts about nine minutes, including about a minute in the middle that Boca Raton police redacted.
A woman who lived upstairs from the couple’s suburban Delray Beach condominium unit told The Post in May 2017 that Bennett told her that he found Hellmann’s engagement ring and electronics and an expensive handbag were gone when he returned to his home days after being rescued. The woman said she told Bennett she’d seen Hellmann’s family in the residence.
In the Boca Raton police video, Officer J.P. Cohen stands on the sidewalk as Bennett waits at the front door of the home where Hellmann’s parents lived.
Hellmann’s sister, Dayana Rodriguez, then comes out and walks past Bennett to the officer, turning only to glare at Bennett.
“Right. We’ve got a problem,” Bennett tells Dayana. “I know you guys came into the house several times.”
Bennett tells Dayana that he has surveillance-camera video and witnesses to show the family took the items.
“It’s not legal. It’s not right. If you’d just asked me, I’d have said yes,” Bennett says. “I don’t know why you had to come in behind my back. I’m pretty upset about it, to say the least.”
Dayana stands, her arms crossed. The two argue more and Dayana says, “I don’t want to talk about anything right now. I’m sorry.”
When Bennett says, “I need that stuff back,” she falls to her knees and presses her hands together in supplication.
“God, you can (expletive) kill me right now if I took something from your house.”
Bennett: “I’m not saying you necessarily, but your family came into the house.”
Dayana then asks Bennett, “Am I getting Emelia or not?”
Bennett replies, “No. I’m going to take Emelia now. I want her stuff please now.”
The two stalk back into the house. The officer stands outside for about a minute. Then Alvarez, Hellmann’s mother, can be heard shouting inside, “No. No.”
Alvarez walks out, sobbing, saying, “Donde esta la niña?” She is asking where the child is.
The officer replies in English, “In the car. But you’re not taking her.”
The mother can be heard off-camera sobbing, as someone in the house appears to be shouting, “Get out.” The officer then steps inside.
Boca Raton police redacted the next 40 seconds or so. When the video resumes, the grandmother and Dayana stand by Bennett’s car. Emelia is inside it.
Bennett says, “If you guys want me to come here with Emelia, with you guys, you’ve got to be better than this. You’re not going to see her again.”
Alvarez pleads in Spanish, “Take her out. Take her out. Please, take her out.”
Only then does the police officer learn what happened to Isabella Hellmann.
“You killed my sister. You killed my sister,” another sister, Elizabeth Rodriguez, off-camera, shouts to Bennett. Then, to the officer, “He killed my sister.”
The officer says, “Your sister’s dead? How did your sister die?”
Dayana then walks to the officer and says, “She disappeared. Look at the news. He’s being investigated.”
The officer says, “Oh, is she the one from the Bahamas?” Dayana answers, “Yeah.” Bennett motions to the officer to help him leave. The officer says, “You’re the father right? You don’t want her to touch ...”
Bennett says, “No.”
The sisters then cry out as Alvarez falls to her knees. Dayana pleads, “Get up. Get up, mommy. You can’t get sick.”
By then, Alvarez’s husband, Eduardo Rodriguez, has come out and is helping her up.
“Did he take her? Did he take her? Please don’t take my child,” the grandmother says, still in Spanish. Then, to the officer, again in Spanish, “Tell him not to take her.”
Hellmann’s relatives then go back inside. The officer tells a clearly frustrated Bennett, “If they don’t have it and they don’t want to give it back to you, I can’t force them.” He is talking about the items Bennett believes the family took.
Bennett says, “This’ll end up in court.”
The officer replies, “They’re your family, too.”
The officer then asks if he can do anything else, and says, “It would be best to just take off.”
Then, “Want to let them see the baby one more time? That would be probably good will.”
Bennett replies, “I don’t think that’s right.” He then enters the car, his missing wife’s 2006 Mercedes, backs out, and drives off.