Man charged with murdering wife on high seas honeymoon so he could inherit her Florida home
Isabella Hellmann was in the Caribbean celebrating her honeymoon with hubbie Lewis Bennett when she mysteriously vanished in May 2017. The couple had left St. Maarten in a catamaran and were headed to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and then ultimately home to Florida. Now, authorities claim that Bennett deliberately sank that catamaran and killed his wife because he wanted sole ownership of Hellman’s Delray Beach, Florida, home.
Prosecutors’ court papers claim that Bennett, 42, wanted out of his marriage. Leading up to what was described in the media as the couple’s postponed honeymoon, Bennett and Hellmann had been arguing; and the couple had been struggling financially. The 41-year-old Hellmann was a real estate broker in Florida.
The criminal complaint against Bennett, who was rescued from a life raft by the Coast Guard, alleges he told investigators he was asleep below the deck of their boat when he heard the vessel hit something soon before his wife’s disappearance.
The vessel was on auto-pilot at the time, Bennett, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Australia, allegedly told the FBI. ~ MSN
Bennett has since been charged with Hellmann’s second-degree murder on the high seas. In an interesting twist to the case, Hellmann’s family, suspicious of Bennett, reportedly bugged Hellmann’s Delray Beach home so they could listen in on Bennett’s conversations. A judge in Miami allowed those taped conversations into evidence against Bennett.
Prosecutor Benjamin Greenberg said the conversations show the couple were constantly arguing.
“Hellmann’s murder would remove the marital strife from the defendant’s life, allow the defendant to live his life as he pleased, and would enable him to inherit money from Hellmann’s estate, all of which provide strong circumstantial proof that the defendant had a strong motive to murder Hellmann,” Greenberg said. ~ Fox News
Hellman’s body has never been found. Her husband was all set to inherit any monies in her bank account as well as her home in Delray Beach. Court documents show the FBI as stating that Bennett’s motive for murdering his wife was financial greed.
Fox News quoted the FBI affidavit as stating, “that Bennett did nothing to search for his wife, but he did rescue a tea set.”
Bennett’s story when he was rescued from a life raft by the Coast Guard, was that the couple’s catamaran struck something in the ocean while his wife was sleeping below deck. Bennett said that he last saw his wife topside after the catamaran hit something, and that she was wearing a life jacket. But then she suddenly disappeared.
Fox went on to report investigators claiming that Bennett staged the accident and scuttled the catamaran from the inside which allowed the vessel to take on water.
Bennett is in custody after pleading guilty earlier this year to transporting $36,000 in stolen coins, which police recovered both from the life raft and Hellmann’s residence. ~ Fox News
Bennett and Hellman had a daughter together. Shortly after his wife was declared missing and he was home safe, Bennett purchased one-way plane tickets to England for he and his toddler daughter. Bennett’s murder trial is schedule to commence in December, according to The Mirror.
~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
