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Mystery Surrounds Missing Boat Crew

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The Associated Press

Published: September 27, 2007

MIAMI - A trip that began as a routine charter boat jaunt to the Bahamas turned horribly wrong somewhere on the high seas, with four crew members still missing Wednesday and two men who hired the vessel in custody facing federal charges.

Adding to the intrigue: One of the passengers, Kirby Logan Archer, 35, of Strawberry, Ark., is wanted in his home state accused of stealing more than $92,000 in January from a Wal-Mart where he was an assistant manager. He also went AWOL from the Army four years ago.

Archer and 19-year-old Guillermo Zarabozo of Hialeah appeared Wednesday in federal court, but neither has been charged in connection with the missing people while the FBI keeps investigating. Meanwhile, Coast Guard ships and aircraft searched hundreds of miles of open ocean in heavy rain for the crew.

'The weather is very, very nasty,' Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr said. 'It makes searching very difficult, both in the air and the sea.'

The search includes a C-130 aircraft and helicopters. It was expanded as far north as Cape Canaveral on Wednesday to account for possible drift caused by the Gulf Stream current. Coast Guard searchers also checked out on foot some of the dozens of small uninhabited cays that dot the Bahamas to the east of Miami.

The FBI was trying to determine how Archer and Zarabozo wound up in a life raft, with the 47-foot charter boat Joe Cool adrift about 12 miles away and no sign of its crew.

'All I can say at this point is that the investigation is continuing,' FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said.

Still missing are the boat's captain, Jake Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley Branam, 30; his half brother, Scott Campbell, 30; and Samuel Kairy, 27, all of Miami Beach.

As of Wednesday, Archer was charged with fleeing prosecution in Arkansas. Zarabozo was charged with lying to federal agents.

According to an FBI affidavit, Zarabozo initially told his Coast Guard rescuers that 'unknown subjects' hijacked the boat, shot and killed the four crew members and then ordered Zarabozo to throw the bodies into the sea. Zarabozo later told the FBI he had never been on the Joe Cool, even though his state identification card was found on the boat.

The vessel was found 'in disarray,' according to the affidavit.

Both men were being held without bail at a federal detention center in Miami. A bail hearing was set for Friday, with prosecutors asking that both be kept in detention.

Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 cash in $100 bills to charter the Joe Cool on Saturday to Bimini, Bahamas, where they told the boat's operators they had female companions waiting for them. The Coast Guard says that GPS navigation devices on the boat show that it veered sharply south toward Cuba about halfway into the 50-mile trip.

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