Oct 5, 2007 8:47 am US/Eastern
4th Bullet Casing Found On Missing Crew's Boat
Zarabozo Claims "Unknown Subjects" Hijacked Boat, Killed Crew Members
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The FBI has discovered more evidence in the case of a missing South Florida boat crew.
FBI investigators have found a 9mm shell from the "Joe Cool" charter boat, which was found abandoned in the Florida Straits near Cuba on Sept. 23.
Investigators say the bullet casing, which was found under a cabin couch, is the fourth casing found on the boat.
Last week, federal prosecutors formally named Kirby Archer, 35, from Strawberry, Ark., and Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, as suspects in the crew's deaths. Archer and Zarabozo had chartered the boat to go to Bimini.
They boarded the "Joe Cool" on September 22nd. The next day, the Coast Guard found the pair in the boat's life raft, a few miles from the abandoned vessel.
Jake Branam, 27, his wife, Kelley Branam, 30; Branam's half-brother, Scott Gamble, 35; and first mate Samuel Kairy, 27, are all presumed dead.
Archer and Zarabozo have not been charged with homicide. However, prosecutors say Zarabozo had blow gun darts and knives on him when authorities found them. Also, federal investigators are awaiting the results of a DNA test on what appeared to be blood on the boat's stern.
Defense attorneys say no evidence has been presented to link them to the slayings.
But based on circumstantial evidence, the judge ruled that they pose a flight risk and ordered them held in federal detention without bail.
Archer is being held for fleeing to avoid prosecution in Arkansas, where he allegedly stole $92,000 from the Wal-Mart where he worked until January.
Zarabozo, who lived in his mother's apartment in Hialeah, is being held on charges he lied to federal investigators when, under questioning, he failed to recognize the Joe Cool.
Both men told investigators that 'hijackers" boarded the vessel, then shot and killed everyone on board. Zarabozo said the hijackers ordered him to dump the bodies overboard.
Their arraignment is scheduled for Thursday October 11th.
Family members of the missing crew are planning a memorial service on the water on Saturday on Norris Cut between Fisher Island and Virginia Island at 10:00 a.m. The plan is for a procession of boats to motor through the Port of Miami and past the Miami Beach Marina, where the 47-foot sportfishing boat had been docked.
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