Three Grenada men have been charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of American cruising sailors Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel. The three also have been charged with additional crimes and for escaping prison in February—the event that authorities believe led to them fleeing on Hendry and Brandel’s 48-foot St. Francis catamaran, Simplicity, which a fellow cruiser found abandoned off a beach in St. Vincent.
Longtime cruising sailors, Hendry and Brandel had sailed Simplicity south last fall with the Salty Dawg Sailing Association’s (SDSA) 2023 Caribbean Rally from Hampton, Virginia, to Antigua, and were spending the winter cruising the Eastern Caribbean. A fellow cruiser boarded Simplicity on February 21 after finding it anchored and abandoned off a beach on the south coast of St. Vincent, according to the SDSA. “The good Samaritan had boarded the boat and noted that the owners, Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, were not onboard and found evidence of apparent violence,” the group said in a statement.
Tracking information showed that their boat had been anchored about 80 miles away in Grenada “and then the boat moved directly to its last anchorage off St. Vincent.” Their bodies have not been found.
On February 27, Brandel’s son, Nick Buro, and Hendry’s son, Bryan Hendry, issued a statement saying, “We are incredibly saddened to hear the news that our parents Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry are now presumed dead.”
“We are grateful to have been raised by the strongest people that we will ever know, and we hope that we can follow in their footsteps and strive to be even half as wonderful as them,” they said. “So many people have reached out with love and encouragement, sharing stories and anecdotes of their memories of Ralph and Kathy, and those stories are what we want them to be remembered by. While the end of their life may have been dark, they brought light, and that light will never be extinguished from the hearts and minds of the people who knew, loved, and cared so deeply about them.”
The Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) issued a statement on March 7 saying that Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 23, and Atiba Stanislaus, 25, all from Paradise, a town in the St. Andrews Parish of Grenada, were charged with capital murder. “They were also charged for the offences of escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery, and two counts of kidnapping. Additionally, Atiba Stanislaus, was charged with one count of rape.” Their next court date was scheduled for March 27.
The three had been in prison in Grenada since December, charged with one count of robbery with violence. Police noted that stemming from the December incident, “Ron Mitchell was charged separately with one count of rape, three counts of attempted rape, two counts of indecent assault, and causing harm. All three men were kept in the holding cell at the South St. George Police Station and escaped lawful custody, on Sunday the 18th of February, 2024,” a February 22 RGPF statement said.
They were recaptured on Feb. 21 by the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadians Police Force.
“Preliminary information emanating from investigators in St. Vincent suggests that the three men made their way to St. Vincent via a yacht which was docked in the St. George area,” the RGFP statement said. “The RGPF is currently working on leads that suggest that the two occupants of the yacht may have been killed in the process.”
The cruising community has been deeply shaken by the tragedy. “Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry are veteran cruisers and longtime members of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association from its earliest days,” the group said. “Warm-hearted and capable, they both contributed to building the SDSA, and Kathy sat on the association’s board for two years.”
SDSA President Bob Osborn said, “I think this has given everyone pause for thought…There’s been a lot of conversation about risk tolerance.” There’s always an element of risk to sailing and cruising—just as there is to many activities, like walking through any large city in the U.S.—but he says cruisers need to remain diligent, do their homework in advance about passages they make and places they are staying, and stay in communication with other cruisers.
He emphasized that extreme violence like this against cruising sailors is extremely unusual. “In all my years of cruising the Caribbean, I have never heard of anything like this,” Osborn said. “This is a horrible tragedy.” But, he added, “This is not common. This was a random act of violence that could happen anywhere.”
To help family members with the considerable expense of dealing with what has happened and the investigation, friends have established a gofundme fundraiser. Those who wish to help can access it here: gofundme.com/f/kathy-brandel-and-ralph-hendry