UK husband of woman missing at sea arrested in rare coin theft

By Keith Griffith

A man whose wife disappeared mysteriously at sea while the pair were yachting in the Bahamas has been arrested in the theft of US$100,000 ($137,741) worth of rare gold and silver coins.

Lewis Bennett, 38, was arrested on a federal charge of transporting stolen goods and is due to appear in a Key West, Florida court on Tuesday.

Investigators say they recovered some of the stolen coins from the very life raft Bennett was rescued from when his wife disappeared, according to the Daily Mail.

On May 15, Bennett and his wife Isabella Hellmann, 41, were sailing from Cuba to the Bahamas on a delayed honeymoon when he put out a distress signal from a life raft, claiming she had disappeared and the boat had hit something while he was sleeping.

Investigators have never officially said whether they suspect foul play in Hellmann's disappearance or named Bennett as a suspect.

The arrest warrant affidavit in the coin theft reveals new details in the strange case, however, and adds an unexpected twist with allegations of stolen treasure on the high seas.

Police say the coins in question were stolen in May of last year from the ship Kitty R, in the Caribbean nation of St Maarten.

The trove of 617 gold and silver coins was hidden in a secret compartment, which the thief had to break a floor panel under a pallet of food to access.

Bennett was working as a crew member on the Kitty R at the time, and he was the one to report the theft to police on the owner's behalf, saying they were stolen when neither he nor the owner were on board at the time.

A year later, in May of this year, Bennett and his new wife were on their honeymoon trip aboard a 37-foot catamaran, the Surf Into Summer.

The pair were married earlier this year and had an infant daughter, who did not join them on the trip.

The 37-foot catamaran, the Surf Into Summer, was found capsized about 48km away from Cay Sal. A search for Hellman proved fruitless. Photo / USS Coastguard

On May 15, "Bennett stated he awoke to a loud thud at 1am... and noticed the vessel was taking on water,' investigators wrote in the arrest affidavit obtained by the Sun-Sentinel.

He "reported he moved topside to look for [Hellmann] who was not at the helm, or anywhere on the boat ... He was unable to slow the flow of water, so he gathered his personal belongings, deployed the life raft and abandoned ship", the affidavit said.

Bennett put out a distress signal and he was rescued from the life raft by the Coast Guard, bringing a backpack with him that the rescue swimmer noted was "unusually heavy".

The contents of the backpack were not seen by rescuers, but the Coast Guard inventoried the rest of the items on the raft: a suitcase; a backpack; unexpended parachute flares; buoys; 52 litres of water; a homing device, and nine plastic tubes which were found to contain 225 silver coins.

The coins were returned to Bennett on May 23, after a four-day search for his missing wife had proved fruitless, but FBI investigators quickly realised their significance and returned to ask for them back the same day.

Bennett agreed to hand over the coins, still in evidence bags, and photographs of them were identified as the stolen coins by the owner of the Kitty R, according to the affidavit.

A June 16 search of Bennett's home turned up more incriminating evidence, investigators said: a cache of 162 gold coins hidden inside a pair of boat shoes in his closet.

Isabella Hellmann had married British-Australian husband Lewis Bennett in Atlanta, Georgia, just a few months before she went missing at sea.

Those coins were also identified as stolen by the owner of the Kitty R, police said.

At least 230 stolen coins, about a third of the total, have not been recovered by investigators.

Lawyers for Bennett and Hellmann's family could not be reached for comment late Monday evening.

Earlier this summer, it emerged that Bennett had requested a letter of "presumed death" just a day after the Coast Guard called off the search for his wife, court documents show.

The Coast Guard called off its three-day search which covered an area of more than 9600km and was aided by helicopters, boats and aircraft, on May 18 for the missing wife who is classified as being lost at sea.

In July, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com at the apartment he and his wife bought last year in Del Ray Beach, British-born Bennett, also an Australian citizen, revealed he made a trip to Cuba to try to find out if his wife had been found and taken there because of its proximity.

He said: "I met the authorities there and checked every hospital, but there is no sign of her.

"It is now two weeks since she has been missing, so I am not holding out much hope of seeing her so I have to come to terms with that.

"This is absolutely devastating for me. She is my soul mate. I thought we were going to be together forever."

Bennett, who is from Dorset in the UK, studied at Bangor University in Wales, and lived for several years in Queensland, Australia, met divorcee Isabella, 41, through the internet.

Speaking to DailyMail.com earlier this year he said: "I had been with Isabella for four years. We were looking forward to our life together.

"We have got a daughter. We were planning a great life together and now I am alone without her. I loved her very much... we'll just have to see."

Asked if it was any suspicion that he had harmed his wife that was fuelling the investigation, he said: "They haven't accused me of anything. Nobody has put that allegation directly against me.

"But I understand why they have to investigate and that is fair enough. I have got nothing to hide. They have to do what they have to do."