What did Elizabeth Waddell tell jet-skiers before disappearance? Husband reveals concerning detail, ‘Out of character…’
The husband of 44-year-old Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Waddell has revealed what his wife reportedly told jet-skiers in what is believed to have been the last time she was seen before she disappeared. A search is underway after the North Carolina woman mysteriously disappeared while visiting the Caribbean island nation of Grenada.
Elizabeth went missing while staying at the white sand beach resort neighborhood of Grand Anse in the capital of St. George’s, the Royal Grenada Police Force said Thursday, July 23.
Elizabeth’s husband, Cailen Waddell, provided new details on his site findliz.com two weeks after his wife went missing. She reportedly had contact with two jet-skiers who reported seeing her swimming at around 5:30 pm that day.
When the jet-skiers offered to take her back to shore, she insisted to them that she was fine, they claimed, per Cailen.
Husband reveals concerning detail
“According to their report, they spoke with her for 5 to 10 minutes trying to convince her to ride in with them on a Jet Ski and not stay in the ocean. Reportedly she said “i’m a good swimmer” and gave them the thumbs up,” the husband wrote.
Cailen said that the jet skiers came forward to meet with the family and that they “most likely” saw Elizabeth far off the coast several hours after she was last seen on the shore.
“I’ll comment that I’ve never heard Liz describe her swimming as good, but the rest of the conversation and their description of her was consistent with it being Liz,” Cailen wrote.
Cailen also said that it would have been “completely out of character” for his wife to have made such a lengthy swim.
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“Floating and treading water in Grand Anse Bay probably 1/3 mile from shore and a 1/3 mile northeast from quarantine point,” he wrote. “In water about 17’ deep according to charts I could find. My commentary is I just can’t believe that Liz made this swim. It is completely out of character for her, and seems far beyond my understanding of her swimming abilities.”
Cailen also wrote about Elizabeth’s swimming abilities, revealing whether she was a good swimmer.
“Not really, she took some swim lessons as an adult but was most comfortable in the water with a flotation device. She took 4 with her to Grenada in her suitcase, and for sure used 2 of them earlier in the trip but didn’t have one as far as we know that day,” he wrote.
Cailen searched for a possible answer in his wife’s journals, emails, text messages, WhatsApp and YouTube history. However, he found no reason as to why she would want to go for such a dangerous swim.
“[A]bsolutely nothing in any of that leads us to believe that she would do anything to hurt herself. On the contrary, she journals about her growth, and lots and lots of plans for the future, that include me, Suwan, and the rest of our family,” he wrote.
“That said — if Liz swam out there, in my heart I believe something happened that made her not act rationally. The Liz I love, and have known for 23 years would not swim where she swam,” he added.
Cailen, an operations manager for the department of parks, recreation, and cultural resources in Cary, North Carolina, acknowledged that the outcome is possibly tragic.
“Based on everything we know, it seems drowning may be the most likely scenario,” he wrote.
What we know so far
Officials who launched a search for Elizabeth appealed to fishermen, boat operators and residents living on the southern coastline to be on the lookout for her and report any sightings. She was last seen on Grand Anse Beach at around 8 pm on Wednesday, July 22.
Concerning surveillance footage previously revealed the last moments of Elizabeth before she went missing. Elizabeth, a physical therapist from Cary, North Carolina, went missing on July 22 while staying with a female friend at the resort. Royal Grenada Police Force Commissioner of Police, Randy Connaught, told a briefing Tuesday, July 28, that CCTV video that cops saw showed Elizabeth getting into the sea at around 11:51 am, and was seen swimming beneath a jetty just 13 minutes later.
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“Ms Waddell was not seen on surveillance footage returning from the water,” Connaught said. “Investigators have also received several eyewitness accounts indicating that she was swimming in the open water.”
The commissioner added that Elizabeth had come to Grenada on a flight from Miami on July 11 with a female friend. They stayed at a resort on the western side of the Caribbean island for the first 10 days, and then relocated to accommodation in the south on July 21. The pair had planned the relocation earlier.
Elizabeth’s friend was seen on surveillance video walking towards the jetty at 12:46 pm the day Waddell vanished. However, the friend returned alone. She reported Elizabeth missing at South St. George police station at 5:50 pm that same afternoon, prompting an “immediate police response”.
Waddell is said to be about 5 feet tall. She is of medium build and has short blonde hair.