South Africans will probably always associate honeymoon deaths with the name Shrien Dewani, who looks to have moved on with his life since being found not guilty of the murder of his wife, Anni.

More recently, there are two cases that spring to mind. Firstly, there’s Emile Cilliers, a South African-born sergeant in the British Army, who was found guilty of trying to kill his wife by tampering with her parachute before a skydive he had bought for her.

Thankfully, his wife Victoria miraculously survived the fall, but the same cannot be said for Isabella Hellmann.

Her husband, 42-year-old Lewis Bennett, has pleaded guilty on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, after initially facing murder charges.

Lewis appeared in court in Miami to plead, and has been sentenced to eight years in jail. The story behind Isabella’s death would make for an interesting, albeit tragic, movie.

Over to the Guardian:

The couple, who had recently had a baby daughter, had been sailing from Cuba to their home in Delray Beach, Florida, when Bennett sent a distress signal on 15 May 2017.

The experienced sailor, with dual British-Australian citizenship, claimed he woke to find his novice passenger missing from the 34ft vessel, Surf Into Summer [above], but he only reported her missing 45 minutes later, after he had fled in a liferaft carrying Cuban trinkets, a tea set and a jar of peanut butter.

He was found to be smuggling rare coins worth nearly $30,000, which prosecutors cited as another potential reason he may have wanted his wife dead. He had reported the gold and silver collectables stolen from a former employer in St Maarten a year earlier.

Other reports put the value of the coins at closer to $100 000.

There’s a lot to unpack there, but I can’t get past the jar of peanut butter. Seeing as though he’s a murderer, I assume Lewis went with smooth.

He was rescued from the lifecraft, but his wife’s body was never found, despite an extensive search:

Prosecutors had alleged he murdered Hellmann and deliberately sunk the catamaran to end his “marital strife” and inherit her home and wealth, but they reduced the charge to unlawful killing without malice and Bennett pleaded guilty.

That seems like a bit of a cop-out, as much of the evidence paints a very unflattering picture. This from ABC News:

Assistant US Attorney Kurt Lunkenheimer said Bennett “did not search for her diligently enough despite him being an experienced sailor”.

The Government maintained he did not use the satellite phone to call for help…

“[Ms] Hellman’s death occurred as a result of Bennett’s knowledge of circumstances that existed that could have reasonably enabled him to foresee threat to life,” the US Attorney’s office statement said.

The FBI said an inspection found holes in the hull were inflicted from the inside and hatches were opened in a deliberate attempt to sink the boat.

Again, involuntary manslaughter sounds like an insufficient charge when you consider the evidence at hand.

Lewis had asked the judge for leniency so that he could raise his daughter “in a manner that is respectful to my wife’s wishes”, but the judge sided with the prosecution when dishing out the sentence.

On top of his eight-year prison stay, Lewis will have to pay $22 910 in restitution and will spend three years on supervised release after serving his sentence.

[sources:guardian&abcnews]