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Virginia couple missing in Grenada and feared killed after yacht allegedly stolen by escaped criminals
Two Americans who planned to spend the winter on a yacht in the Caribbean were officially missing Monday, but feared to have been killed after their boat was stolen by prison escapees in Grenada. Kathy Brendle and Ralph Hendry were last seen a week ago near a beach in the small island nation. Police found their sailboat, and captured three escaped criminals whom they believe stole it.
Grenadan police were still searching for the couple, who are from Northern Virginia, and they told CBS News’ Washington D.C. affiliate WUSA that no bodies had been found.
Family and friends have described the couple as seasoned sailors who just last year sailed their yacht, named Simplicity, from Hampton, Virginia to Antigua. They confirmed that the pair had been vacationing in Grenada, where their boat was docked.
Kenton X. Chance/AP
“It’s just really sad,” said longtime friend K.C. McAlpin, who added that Brendle and Hendry had planned to make this their “last grand trip” on Simplicity.
Instead, things may have taken a very tragic turn. The yacht was found on Feb. 18, abandoned on a beach on the nearby island of St. Vincent.
That same day, police in Grenada said they had arrested three convicted criminals who had escaped from custody.
The three men — identified as Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25 — were arrested in December over an alleged violent robbery. Mitchell also faced one count of rape, three counts of attempted rape and two counts of indecent assault and causing harm.
The police believe the men hijacked the couple’s yacht in Grenada and then traveled to St. Vincent.
Police said they found evidence suggesting the pair were killed, but the Americans’ deaths have not been confirmed and the investigation was still in its early stages, they stressed.
Over the weekend, family members released a statement thanking officials and those who had helped gather information, saying it ” means so much to us that so many people care for Ralph and Kathy.”
McAlpin said the couple always made friends easily and he hoped they would be remembered for their big hearts.
“They were just a delightful couple and a real blessing in my life, and the lives of so many other people,” he said.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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