The yacht “Simplicity”, that officers say was hijacked by three escaped prisoners with two folks aboard, is docked on the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coastguard Service Calliaqua Base, in Calliaqua, St. Vincent, on Friday.

Kenton X. Chance/AP

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Kenton X. Chance/AP

The yacht “Simplicity”, that officers say was hijacked by three escaped prisoners with two folks aboard, is docked on the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coastguard Service Calliaqua Base, in Calliaqua, St. Vincent, on Friday.

Kenton X. Chance/AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A U.S. couple whose catamaran was hijacked final week within the Caribbean by three escaped prisoners had been presumed useless and sure had been thrown into the ocean, police mentioned Monday.

The accounts by police in Grenada and in St. Vincent and the Grenadines had been a blow to those that had been independently serving to seek for Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel and had hoped they had been alive.

Don McKenzie, commissioner of the Royal Grenada Police Force, mentioned at a information convention that the three prisoners escaped on Feb. 18 from the South Saint George Police Station. They hijacked the catamaran Simplicity on the next day after which headed to St. Vincent, the place they had been arrested final Wednesday, he mentioned.

“Information suggests that while traveling between Grenada and St. Vincent, they disposed of the occupants,” McKenzie mentioned.

McKenzie mentioned he had no conclusive proof that the couple was useless however cited a “low probability” they had been alive.

Hours later, the primary spokesman for the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force posted a video saying that whereas no our bodies have been discovered, the couple is presumed useless based mostly on the investigation thus far.

Police report indicators of violence aboard the deserted boat

The suspects had been being investigated for a number of legal acts, together with “bodily harm to the couple,” spokesman Junior Simmons mentioned within the temporary recorded assertion. There had been indicators of violence on the couple’s boat discovered deserted in St. Vincent, he mentioned.

“Several items were strewn on the deck and in the cabin, and a red substance that resembles blood was seen on board,” he mentioned.

The nonprofit Salty Dawg Sailing Association has mentioned that Hendry and Brandel had been “veteran cruisers” and longtime members of the affiliation, calling them “warm-hearted and capable.”

It mentioned the couple had sailed the yacht in final yr’s Caribbean Rally from Hampton, Virginia, to Antigua, and had been spending the winter cruising within the japanese Caribbean.

A son of Hendry and a son of Brandel didn’t instantly return messages for remark.

A GoFundMe web page created to boost cash for the couple’s household famous that Brandel had just lately change into a first-time grandmother, and that the crusing group was “shattered” by what occurred.

“Kathy and Ralph, experienced adventurers, spent their retirement sailing aboard Simplicity, spending summers in New England and embracing the warmth of Caribbean winters,” the web page said.

McKenzie, Grenada’s police commissioner, mentioned a five-person workforce was despatched to St. Vincent to assist with the investigation.

After his temporary announcement on Monday, McKenzie and different police officers took questions from native media, together with one reporter who requested, “Who is really to be blamed for this massive failure to keep these prisoners under the control of the (Royal Grenada Police Force) which has now resulted in this tragedy?”

The prisoners’ escape is being investigated

McKenzie mentioned police have launched an investigation into the escape and are trying into whether or not it was “a system failure” or a case of a “slip up.”

“All aspects of that investigation are on the table,” he mentioned, including that the police holding station the place the three males had been being held has “sufficient safety to prevent an incident like that (from) occurring.”

When the reporter requested why the three males who had been arrested remained in a holding cell as an alternative of jail, Vannie Curwen, assistant police commissioner, mentioned the boys first needed to see a Justice of the Peace who would determine whether or not to grant bail or organize them remanded.

The escaped prisoners, Trevon Robertson, a 19-year-old unemployed man; Abita Stanislaus, a 25-year-old farmer; and Ron Mitchell, a 30-year-old sailor; had been charged a few months in the past with one depend of theft with violence. Mitchell additionally was charged with one depend of rape, three counts of tried rape and two counts of indecent assault and inflicting hurt, police in Grenada mentioned.

Simmons mentioned the three males appeared in courtroom in St. Vincent on Monday and pleaded responsible to 4 counts every of immigration-related costs, together with coming into the island as a “prohibited immigrant” with no passport. They are scheduled to be sentenced on these costs in March.