How Did Charter Boat Become A Ghost Ship?

With Scant Evidence, Investigators Try To Solve Mystery Of Murder On The High Seas

(CBS/AP)  Unlike most boats returning from the high seas, the sport fisher Joe Cool had no tales to tell.

Three days earlier, the 47-foot boat had departed for the island of Bimini, four crew members and two passengers aboard. A day earlier, it had been found, doing circles and dragging anchor, on a lonely stretch of the Florida Straits about 30 miles north of Cuba.

With no crew.

And no passengers.

As a Coast Guard cutter towed it slowly back into Biscayne Bay, a hush fell over its home, the Miami Beach Marina.

In the slips, men ceased buffing the pearly hulls of multimillion-dollar yachts. Dock boys stopped zipping about in EZGO carts. Even the Shih Tzu-walkers in their Gucci sunglasses and clogs paused as the white vessel glided without a murmur up the channel.

Along the docks and the palm-lined pier, "Everyone stood there and followed the boat with their eyes," Valerie Kevorkian, a dive shop operator and scuba instructor, recalled, "and then there was only emptiness ... a ghostly feeling."

Indeed, the Joe Cool had returned with no souls or story - only clues, tantalizing to be sure, to a high-seas mystery full of twists, discrepancies, revelations and contradictions.

As on an episode of "CSI," investigators would pluck from the vessel some valuable evidence: four 9 mm shell casings; a tiny key that might or might not unlock handcuffs; splotches of human blood, inside and outside the cabin.

They would also find, drifting in an orange life raft 12 miles north of the ghost ship, two seemingly incongruous men who had chartered the Joe Cool - a 35-year-old, suspected thief on the run from police in Arkansas, and a clean-cut, 19-year-old Cuban-American training to become a private security guard.

They would interrogate these survivors, take down a story that three pirates had hijacked the boat and coldly shot each crew member, and then, for some reason, let these two go in a life raft with their luggage and about $2,200 in cash.

Investigators didn't buy the story. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged the suspects with first-degree murder in the high-seas killing of the Joe Cool's young, four-member crew: the captain, Jake Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley, 30; Jake's half-brother, Scott Gamble, 35, and their friend and first mate, Samuel Kairy, 27.

What law enforcement would not immediately provide - may never fully provide, perhaps - are what the relatives and friends of the four most desire: Answers and, by extension, closure.

For a week after its return, the Joe Cool sat in dock at a Coast Guard station directly across the channel from the marina. No one was allowed near the vessel - except the forensics experts who combed it for clues - but the boat's graceful hull and vaulting flybridge were visible, and haunting, to all.

"This could have happened to any one of us, and whenever you looked at that boat over there, it reminded of you of that," said Greg Love, 51, who runs Club Nautico South Beach, one of the marina's five charter businesses.

Kevorkian, whose dive shop is next door, caught herself many times that week, gazing beyond the boat lifts at the tied-up Joe Cool.

"It just looked empty. Like a shell," she said. "There was no feeling, no soul in it anymore."

[pookiesangel]

I pray for the family and friends of the crew. I hope they find their bodies and to put an end to this horrible tragedy. Prayers go out to the family

[Krazcarl]

Folks it ran out of gas it was in open sea with murders commited aboard they werent smart enough to sink her it was a metal boat with bouyance they did''t know how they don''t go down like the titanic they bailed instead of standing in the middle of the crime scene that simple.

[Krazcarl]

yyy

[neoconslayer]

azmka,
I understand that they took the raft because the boat motor broke down.

[azmka]

The circumstances easily lead to conclusions of guilt on the part of the two in custody, but the question that nags me is why they chose the life raft instead of taking the boat?

[duffyn]

I believe I read in an earlier story that they abandon the boat because it had quit working. But, yeah, if it''s not sinking, it''s a lot nicer than a life raft. My guess is they wanted to get away from the scene of the crime!

[phil-in-fin]

Obviously ...

Like John Kerry''s swift boat ... the coincidences between this story and that story are scary, hair raising even ...

speakinup said,

"obviously, Bush did it!!

[hawksprings]

Yes, it''s Bush''s fault.

(That the S.L.A.T.E... The Standard Liberal Answer To Everything.)

[speakinup]

obviously, Bush did it!

[mythoughtsr]

StopIraq, you are a lunatic. Onward to the discussion at hand. My heart aches for the families. I can''t imagine and don''t know what to say other than I''m sorry. I hope the two murderers are executed for what they''ve done.

[waterandsand]

something just doesnt add up though,, why would you kill everyone when your that far out and if you did kill them why the f would you abandone a perfectly stable boat that is not SINKING and jump in a life raft?

[jetlizhan]

just got back from a late lunch and read this story in its entirety. it''s so sad for these young people, they had their entire lives ahead of them. the two young babies left behind without a mom and dad is so tragic. i pray justice is served and these 2 thugs serve a long sentence.

[prairiefox1]

TRY THEM FOR PIRACY AND SENTENCE THEM TO HANG AS IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS!

[leprechankid]

Crimes like this always make me especially sad because the victims seem like decent people and the criminals are a couple of dummies. So sad.

[nolalou]

Besides being cold blooded murderers, these two were a couple of bone-heads. If they wanted to escape the US to Cuba, they could have booked a flight to Mexico, and they from there to Cuba with no problem! Sneaking out of Cuba may be difficult, but you don''t hear of too many people trying to sneak in!

I hope they find enough evidence to convict these two, and send them to jail for life!

[Krazcarl]

This story is so basic except lrd to the killings those idiots killed them wern''t able to handle her tried till she rin out of gas then bailed and were to stupid to sink her navigation on open seas reqires training and the ability to read instruments and these yookles weren''t up to the task. Thought they were going to saul in with a nice boat cash and be heros I''d bet my pay cheack on it grew up on the coast of Me. and know what skill it takes to operate this kind of craft outside the view of land they should be executed as a example to others.