Tourist couple Ralph Hendry & Kathy Brandel feared dead after 3 escaped prisoners hijack their yacht in the Caribbean

A TOURIST couple is feared dead after three escaped prisoners hijacked their yacht in the Caribbean.

Sailors Ralph Hendry and his wife Kathy Brandel were last spotted on Sunday afternoon by a boating neighbour as they were on their way to a restaurant on Grenada.

Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry have been missing since last weekJESSICA MAUSE/GOFUNDME

The American couple lived on their docked yacht, Simplicity, during winter and had arrived on the island two weeks prior.

Ralph and Kathy, from Virginia, were planning to stay for another week before vanishing.

They have followed the same path for the last few years, sailing from Virginia to Massachusetts before coming down to Florida to visit Desmarais and then heading down to the Caribbean to island hop.

The sailors went missing the same day that three fugitives, Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25, “escaped lawful custody”, the New York Post reported.

The trio escaped the South St. George Police Station and headed to the marina, where they reportedly fled to another Caribbean island.

A police statement read: “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.”

On Wednesday, a sailing captain was paddle-boarding along the Saint Vincent shore when he noticed a ransacked yacht with a broken sail.

Download our fantastic, new and improved free App for the best ever Sun Online experience. For iPhone click here, for Android click here.