Terrified texts of bride ‘murdered at sea by Brit husband on their honeymoon’
Prosecutors in the United States have charged Lewis Bennett, who is a dual British Australian national, of murdering his wife Isabella Hellmann in May last year after their 37ft catamaran sank off the coast of Cuba
A WOMAN allegedly murdered by her husband during their Caribbean honeymoon said in text messages that she was "afraid" of him.
Prosecutors in the United States have charged Lewis Bennett, who is a dual British Australian national, of murdering his wife Isabella Hellmann in May last year after their 37ft catamaran sank off the coast of Cuba.
In court documents filed last week police allege Mr Bennett, 41, from Poole, Dorset, killed his wife to end “marital strife” between the couple.
And now Hellmann's text messages have revealed that she felt Bennett did not "respect her any more" and that she "found an angry person" when she came home.
Hellmann, 41, also said she was "afraid to get home", reports.
Court documents detail the text messages, which also read: "Sometimes I can be a pain in the a** and more but you need to change your attitude... you make me crazy shouting, yelling, swearing... YOU ARE PUSHING ME AWAY."
She added: ";This morning I was afraid to get home with the coffee but I walked in and I was right.
"I found an angry person, this is very sad."
Months before Ms Hellmann's disappearance, she wrote: "If you don’t like me or love me anymore let us fix this asap because is very pathetic the way you treated me all the time."
The newlyweds were sailing home to the US when Mr Bennett says he was woken by the sound of a collision.
He was rescued alone after radioing for help but his 41-year-old wife has never been found.
Within 24 hours of her disappearance, Mr Bennett asked for a “letter of presumed death” so he could settle her estate.
When he was found he had a heavy bag containing gold and silver coins.
'I WAS AFRAID': Haunting texts from wife in the lead up to her disappearance
- October 14, 2016 “I’m not perfect, sometimes I can be a pain in the ass and more but you need to change your attitude . . . you make me crazy shouting, yelling, swearing . . . YOU ARE PUSHING ME AWAY. This morning I was afraid to get home with the coffee but I walked in and I was right, I found an angry person, this is very sad . . .”
- November 28 “For first time I’m happy you are away for a few hours . . . We need to get what we have before I miss it a lot! . . . we have to learn how to live with our little daughter we are living a new stage in life we have to fight for our love.”
- December 5 “If you don’t like me or love me anymore let us fix this asap because is very pathetic the way you treated me all the time [...] I’m tired of you telling me I’m the MOST WORSE PERSON YOU EVER MET BEFORE, everything I do it’s WRONG . . .”
- March 7, 2017 “Do not treat me bad, think before [you] say those words to me!”
- April 8 “Thank you for making me miserable. I was so excited waiting for you . . . U came only to criticized [sic] what I do.”
- April 17 “Lovies I just got an email saying that they will disconnect the electricity.”
- April 20 “We are delinquent on the taxes.”
He has since plead guilty to smuggling the stolen coins worth about £30,000 and is currently serving a seven-month jail term for the crime.
Prosecutors believe Ms Hellmann may have discovered her husband had the coins, which were stolen from his former employer on the Caribbean island of St Maarten.
This “potentially led to an intense argument resulting in Hellmann’s murder”, prosecutor Benjamin Greenberg has said.
The prosecutor alleges the couple were arguing about a planned moved to Australia, financial problems and their young daughter.
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“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,” Mr Greenberg suggested.
Mr Bennett is due to go on trail for second degree murder in December.
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