On September 22, 2007, 30-year-old Kelly Branam left Miami Beach aboard the 47-foot fishing vessel Joe Cool with her husband, Jake Branam, 27, crewman Scott Gamble, 35, and friend Samuel Kairy, 27. The boat was transporting two paying passengers, Kirby Logan Archer and Guillermo Zarabozo, to the Bahamas and was expected back the next day. Instead the vessel was found adrift and abandoned in the Straits of Florida on September 23, about 20 miles from Cuba, with the life raft missing and the boat in disarray.

Archer and Zarabozo were discovered in a life raft several days later; their accounts changed and were judged inconsistent. Investigators recovered spent 9-millimeter casings and bloodstains on the Joe Cool and a backpack with a blowgun, darts, and knives with Archer and Zarabozo. Both men were charged with first-degree murder. Archer later pleaded guilty to murder, robbery, kidnapping and hijacking and confessed that he and Zarabozo killed the four crew members and disposed of the bodies; Zarabozo was convicted at retrial. Kelly Branam’s body has never been recovered.

Did anyone ever see Kelly or the Joe Cool after it left Miami Beach on September 22, 2007?