Within a day after the agency called off the search for Isabella Hellmann, her husband asked the Coast Guard for a “letter of presumed death,” court documents show. Lewis Bennett has said he was awakened early on May 15 after his catamaran struck something west of Cay Sal in the Bahamas. He said he came topside to find the vessel was taking on water and Hellmann, his wife of three months, was gone. He was rescued, but a four-day search to find Hellmann, 41, was officially called off May 18.
