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Suspect: 'Hijackers' Killed Missing Crew Members

Zarabozo Claims "Unknown Subjects" Hijacked Boat, Killed Crew Members

MIAMI (CBS4) ― Two men at the center of a bizarre boat trip to the Bahamas are being held at a federal detention center in Miami as the FBI tries to solve an ocean disappearance mystery. One of those men who hired the charter boat is also a fugitive robbery suspect.

Kirby Logan Archer, 35, of Strawberry, Ark., is wanted in his home state for allegedly stealing more than $92,000 in January from a Wal-Mart where he was an assistant manager. He also has a checkered military past: he went AWOL from the Army four years ago.

Archer and 19-year-old Guillermo Zarabozo, of Hialeah, appeared in federal court Wednesday, but neither has been charged in connection with the missing people as the FBI keeps investigating.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard ships and aircraft searched hundreds of miles of open ocean in heavy rain for the crew members who have been missing since Sunday.

"The weather is very, very nasty," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr. "It makes searching very difficult, both in the air and the sea."

The search includes a C-130 aircraft and helicopters. It was expanded as far north as Cape Canaveral on Wednesday to account for possible drift caused by the Gulf Stream current. Coast Guard searchers also checked out on foot some of the dozens of small uninhabited cays that dot the Bahamas to the east of Miami.

The FBI was trying to determine how Archer and Zarabozo wound up in a life raft, with the 47-foot fishing charter boat "Joe Cool" adrift about 12 miles away and no sign of the boat's crew.

"All I can say at this point is that the investigation is continuing," said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

Still missing are the boat's captain, Jake Branam, 27; his wife Kelley Branam, 30; his half brother, Scott Campbell, 30; and Samuel Kairy, 27, all of Miami Beach.

As of Wednesday, Archer was charged with fleeing prosecution in Arkansas. Zarabozo was charged with lying to federal agents.

According to an FBI affidavit, Zarabozo initially claimed to his Coast Guard rescuers that "unknown subjects" had hijacked the boat, shot and killed the four crew members and then ordered Zarabozo to throw the bodies into the sea. Zarabozo later told the FBI he had never been on the "Joe Cool," even though his state identification card was found on the boat.

The affidavit also says that a substance appearing to be blood was found on the stern of the boat, along with six marijuana cigarettes, a laptop computer, luggage, clothes and a cell phone.

Archer, the affidavit said, admitted that he was a fugitive and knew that he could not travel by air.

Both men are being held without bail at a federal detention center in Miami.

At their court appearances, Archer and Zarabozo were both told they would get court-appointed lawyers. When asked if he had any assets to pay for a lawyer, Archer said all he had was $2,200 that investigators confiscated after his arrest.

A bail hearing for both men was set for Friday. Prosecutors said they would seek to keep both in detention.

Several of Zarabozo's relatives attended the hearing, including his father also named Guillermo Zarabozo, but they declined to talk to reporters.

Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 cash in $100 bills to charter the "Joe Cool" on Sunday to Bimini, Bahamas, where they told the boat's operators they had female companions waiting for them. The Coast Guard says that GPS navigation devices on the boat show that it veered sharply south toward Cuba about halfway into the 50-mile trip. The two suspects were later found on a safety raft, but the four crew members were not.

Archer, a former Army military police investigator, had been stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the 1990s, according to court records. He went AWOL in 2003 and received a "less-than-honorable discharge" as a result, according to Arkansas records from his 2005 divorce.

Less is known about Zarabozo, other than he is a migrant from Cuba and lives with relatives in Hialeah. Archer's ex-wife, Michelle Rowe, told investigators that her husband met Zarabozo as a boy in Cuba and may have helped him and his family reach the U.S. In addition, she said, the two men may have been trying to escape to Cuba to start a new life together.

"I found out he was having an affair with some men," said Rowe.

Rowe said when Archer was a military investigator at the Guantanamo base in the mid-1990's he befriended a child who had been intercepted at sea. Sometime later, Archer left the base under a cloud of suspicion.

"He went AWOL from the military after child molestation accusations were brought up," said Rowe, "he ran then. He ran after child molestation charges again."

Rowe said the child eventually came to Florida and she suspects Zarabozo is that child grown up

An attorney for Rowe, Chaney Taylor of Batesville, Ark., said Rowe has had no recent contact with Archer. Rowe has custody of the couple's two young sons, Taylor said.

"We don't know where he's been since January," Taylor said of Archer.

In the court documents, Rowe contended that her husband admitted to her that he was homosexual and had affairs with five or six men. Archer, however, denied that, saying that one man mentioned by his ex-wife was merely a roommate and not a lover.

Court records also show that Archer has since remarried, to another woman named Michelle. In court on Wednesday, Archer said he is now separated.

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CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this repo)