Briton charged with killing his wife on cruise
A BRITISH yachtsman who reported his wife missing during a belated honeymoon cruise was yesterday charged with her murder.
Lewis Bennett, 41, was taken into custody following an FBI investigation as he appeared in a Miami court to be sentenced for smuggling stolen coins during the same fateful voyage.
The businessman and engineer from Poole, Dorset, claimed that Isabella Hellmann, 41, disappeared at sea after his catamaran sank in May last year.
But in a court document charging him with second-degree murder, FBI special agent James Kelley said the bureau believed Bennett ‘knowingly and unlawfully killed’ his wife – an estate agent and the mother of their daughter, now 18 months old.
The FBI suggested greed was the motive as he would inherit their home in Delray Beach, Florida, and her money.
The couple were sailing home from Havana. According to the FBI, Bennett told investigators the night his wife disappeared he had gone below deck 30 miles west of the Bahamas to sleep and left her to keep watch.
He claimed he woke at 1am to the sound of a loud thud and found his Colombian-born wife gone. He sent out a distress call and abandoned ship after realising the boat was taking on water.
He was rescued by a US helicopter two hours later. Miss Hellmann’s body was never found.
Investigators claim there were signs that Bennett, who was found in a liferaft with luggage, had scuttled the boat.
A search of the boat revealed collectable coins he had reported stolen and he was yesterday jailed for seven months for transporting stolen property.