By Daniel Bates in New York and Claire Ellicott for Daily Mail UK
Brit Gary Vanhoeck, 44, shot dead by robbers who stormed his yacht
His horrified wife Kathryn, 42, was tied up during the late-night raid
Incident took place as they relaxed in the Bahamas’ capital of Nassau
Police have launched island-wide manhunt for four suspects but no-one has been arrested so far
A British diving instructor who lived in the Bahamas has been shot dead by robbers who stormed his yacht in a late-night raid.
Gary Vanhoeck, 44, was ambushed by two men as he and his wife Kathryn, 42, were relaxing on their yacht on the Caribbean island.
The men demanded that Mr Vanhoeck give them money and ordered him on to the dock where they shot him twice, according to police.
His distraught wife – who is thought to have been tied up – watched her husband die as she phoned police while the attackers fled. She was unharmed.
Police in the capital Nassau have launched an island-wide manhunt for four suspects, but no-one has been arrested.
Mr Vanhoeck lost his first wife Deborah at the age of 35. The couple had a son Chris, 24, who lives in Swindon.
Mr Vanhoeck was originally from Grimsby in Lincolnshire and had been living in the Bahamas for five years.
He wrote on his blog that he quit his job in the UK and moved to the Caribbean to pursue his dream of becoming a dive instructor.
He was part of the crew for the 2013 Robert Redford film All is Lost, which was shot in the Bahamas and was nominated for an Oscar.
On his blog, Mr Vanhoeck wrote that he and his wife, also a diver, were loving their life on the island, where they were ‘Living like pirates, diving in the Caribbean’.
Nassau police spokesman Stephen Dean told the Mail: ‘The men went on to the boat and they took him off the boat. They wanted money and it’s not clear if he resisted or if there was a struggle. He was shot dead and they ran off.’
Assistant commissioner Dean said that a killing like this was ‘rare’ and ‘not an everyday occurrence’.
He said: ‘It’s a major concern every time we have something like this happen’.
A statement from Nassau Police said: ‘Police have launched an island-wide manhunt for the suspects responsible for a shooting incident that left a man dead on Friday 1st May.
‘According to reports, around 10:00pm, a man who is a British national residing in the Bahamas for a number of years, was at home on his sailboat located at western New Providence near a place where he is employed, when two men armed with handguns accosted him and demanded cash.
‘The men fired two shots hitting the victim before fleeing on foot.
‘The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are searching for four men in connection with this incident. Investigations are ongoing’
The incident happened at 10pm last Friday on the yacht that Mr Vanhoeck owns and uses as his home at Stuart Cove’s diving centre in western New Providence.
His brother Wayne told the Standard the whole family would miss the man who had gone to the Bahamas to ‘live his dream’.
‘He had an idea of what he wanted to do and he went for it,’ Gary said.
‘He was very determined, very positive. You wanted him to be your brother. I am absolutely gutted.’
Mr Vanhoeck appears to have loved his life in the Caribbean and in one Tweet he said: ‘Sitting in the sun filling tanks drinking beer.’
He was the dock manager at Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas, the largest-snorkel and dive operation in the Caribbean island.
On his blog started when he moved to the Bahamas he wrote: ‘To pack up ones home, say good bye to work, family and friends, head half way around the world to start a new life teaching diving!
‘Will it be a dream or the biggest mistake you ever made? Who knows, but unless you try it you will always ask, “If only I had…”.
‘So here goes, wish me luck and thanks for all the support.’
He also joked that the blog was ‘the adventures of a diving instructor, or better known as “The mid-life crisis”’.
On a tourism website Mr Vanhoeck spoke of how he enjoyed the different kinds of fish that he saw every day diving in the tropical waters.
He said that the water was ‘different every day’ and that he had been taking children as young as five on day trips.
According to local newspaper The Tribute, the murder was the third in a period of 33 hours on Nassau and takes the total of homicides in the Bahamas this year to 48.
Nobody for Stuart’s Cove was available for comment.
Nobody at the British High Commission in Jamaica, which covers the Bahamas, was available for comment.
IMAGES:
Gary Vanhoeck was ambushed and shot by two men as he and his wife Kathryn (both pictured) were relaxing on their yacht on a Caribbean island
Mr Vanhoeck is thought to have died in front of his wife after the attackers fled. She was unharmed
Crime scene: The couple’s yacht in Nassau’s Stuart Cove where the incident took place last Friday
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