Newlywed mom on sailing trip with husband goes missing

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Sunday, May 28, 2017
Search for missing newlywed
Search for missing newlywedSearch for missing newlywed. Gray Hall reports during Action News at 6 a.m. on May 28, 2017.

The FBI is investigating after a newlywed from Florida reportedly vanished while on a sailing trip with her husband near the Bahamas.

Isabella Hellman and her husband Lewis Bennet set off from Cuba on May 14th.

A few hours later, the Coast Guard received a distress signal from the couple's boat off the coast of the Bahamas.

"The initial report that we had was that the catamaran vessel struck an unknown submerged object and began taking on water," United States Coast Guard Lt. Commander Ryan Kelly said.

Three hours later, rescuers spotted the partially submerged boat.

They found Bennett in a life raft, but there was no sign of Hellman.

Bennett said he last saw his wife on deck at 8 p.m. the night before; he said he went below deck to sleep and woke up when the boat hit something

The Coast Guard spent three days searching nearly 7,000 square miles of ocean.

The couple has a 9-month-old daughter.

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