Mystery at Sea: Two survivors Arrested

The story of the missing
crew members aboard an abandoned Miami Beach charter boat took a
strange turn on Wednesday with talk of mysterious hijackers and deadly
shootings on the high seas.

One of the two men who hired the four-member crew to take them to
Bimini told U.S. Coast Guard officials that all four were ‘’shot and
killed” by several ”unknown hijackers.” He told them the hijackers had
apparently stormed the boat on the high seas near the Bahamas,
according to court documents released on Wednesday.

Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, of Hialeah, told Coast Guard officials on
Tuesday that he survived the supposed attack after he complied with the
hijackers’ orders to throw the bodies of the four dead crew members
overboard, court documents show.

That same day, Coast Guard officials towed The Joe Cool, the 47-foot
sportfisher boat at the center of the mystery, to Miami Beach and asked
Zarabozo to identify it. Asked twice by Coast Guard officials, Zarabozo
replied he did not recognize the boat. He also told them he had not
been on board the vessel.

Court documents show the statement conflicted with evidence Coast Guard officials found on the boat: Zarabozo’s Florida ID.

Coast Guard officials also reported they found six marijuana
cigarettes, a laptop computer, computer accessories, luggage, a daily
planner, clothing, and a cellular phone aboard the boat. They also
reported finding a handcuff key on the vessel’s bow as well as a
substance on the vessel’s stern that appeared to be blood.

The man accompanying Zarabozo on the vessel, Kirby Archer, 36, of
Arkansas, was also interviewed by Coast Guard officials. The court
document did not indicate whether he was asked about the apparent
hijacking or the alleged shootings aboard the vessel. Archer told Coast
Guard officials that he was aware of an outstanding warrant for his
arrest in Arkansas.

Archer was charged Tuesday with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution
in an unrelated case. He is a former customer service manager at an
Arkansas Wal-Mart and is accused of stealing $92,000 from the store by
sneaking it out in a microwave oven in January.

Zarabozo was charged with giving a false statement to a federal
agent investigating the disappearance of the four crew members.Both men
waived the Miranda rights when brought aboard a Coast Guard cutter for
questioning. Both were being kept at the federal detention center in
downtown Miami following an appearance in federal court in Miami on
Wednesday.

The vessel, say Coast Guard officials, was found abandoned on Monday
at around 6 p.m. about 11 nautical miles southwest of Anguilla Cay,
Bahamas, and about 40 miles north of Cuba.

Zarabozo and Archer were found Monday morning floating on a life
raft 12 miles north of the drifting boat. They had hired the
four-member crew of The Joe Cool on Sunday for a trip to Bimini.

On Tuesday, the Coast Guard moved its search for the four crew
members farther north to waters off Palm Beach County. The missing are
captain Jake Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley Branam, 30; Branam’s
half-brother Scott Gamble, 35; and first mate Samuel Kairy, 27, all of
Miami Beach. Relatives of the Branams hired a helicopter Tuesday and
flew a stretch of the Florida Straits.

Two men picked up in a life raft after hiring a Miami Beach charter boat whose four-member crew disappeared over the weekend were charged late Tuesday with federal crimes. Kirby Archer, 35, of Strawberry, Ark., was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, of Hialeah, was charged with giving a false statement to a federal agent. Both were taken to federal prison in Miami.

Archer, a former customer service manager at an Arkansas Wal-Mart, is accused of stealing $92,000 from the store by sneaking it out in a microwave oven in January. The Joe Cool, the 47-foot sportfisher boat at the center of the mystery, was towed back to Miami Beach as well. Federal agents, who are investigating the disappearance of the Joe Cool’s crew, were mum on what Archer and Zarabozo, plucked from a life raft on Monday, have had to say under questioning.

Meanwhile, details emerging from family, neighbors and co-workers of the two men — in both rural Arkansas and a hardscrabble section of Hialeah — indicate that Archer befriended Zarabozo’s family in the mid-1990s. Then a boy, Zarabozo and his parents and sister were trying to escape Cuba, and Archer was a military police investigator at Guantánamo Bay, according to Archer’s ex-wife, Michelle Rowe.

”I can’t be 100 percent sure, but I think this is the same boy he met in Guantánamo and told me he had grown very close to,” Rowe told The Miami Herald. Archer’s current wife, Michelle Archer, said her husband knew a ”Guillermo” in Miami. Zarabozo’s mother confirmed Tuesday that her son knew Archer — and said Archer had visited their home years ago. Meanwhile Tuesday, the Coast Guard moved its search for the four crew members farther north to waters off Palm Beach County, three days after the U.S. Coast Guard found the Joe Cool in the Florida Straits, about 40 miles north of Cuba. The missing are captain Jake Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley Branam, 30; Branam’s half-brother Scott Gamble, 35; and first mate Samuel Kairy, 27, all of Miami Beach.

”Unfortunately, the clock is ticking,” cautioned Petty Officer James Judge.

Relatives of the Branams hired a helicopter Tuesday and flew a stretch of the Florida Straits. Back on land, they said the couple’s daughter was calling for her mommy and daddy.