My husband was executed by masked gunmen who stormed our dream yacht & tied me up after we quit UK for Caribbean
GAZING out over the sparkling crystal blue waters of the Bahamas, Gary and Kat Vanhoeck could scarcely believe their luck.
After selling up in the UK, they bought a 36ft yacht and embarked on a new life in paradise without a care in the world.
Neither of them knew the first thing about sailing but diving instructor Gary was adamant they would learn.
“Will it be a dream or the biggest mistake you ever made?” he wrote ahead of their new adventure.
“Who knows, but unless you try it you will always ask…So here goes.”
They embraced their new life with the same vigour and enthusiasm, relying on books to learn how to sail, and never once looked back.
For five wonderful years, Gary and Kat took groups of scuba-divers down into the depths before returning ashore to relax in the picturesque beauty made famous by 007.
But their idyllic new life was brutally shattered when two armed robbers crept aboard in the dead of night.
In the chaotic moments that followed Gary, 51, was marched off the boat and executed close to the dive school where they both worked with a single shot to the back of the head.
Below deck, one of the men cornered Kat and wrapped silver duct tape around her head until she was unable to see and could barely breathe.
After what felt like an age, silence finally descended across the boat and Kat felt her way out to the bow, peeling back the layers of gaffer tape before making a run for it.
Today, in her first and only interview, she relives her ordeal in harrowing detail and reveals the shocking failures that have left her searching for justice a decade on.
Dream life
Clutching a tissue in one hand Kat, now 55, begins: “The Caribbean is what you see on the TV – it was paradise.
“Clear blue seas, white sands, the Mecca of the sailing world.
“It was everything we ever dreamed of. Every day was different, but the sun was always shining.
“We used to go and sit underneath a tree and have a beer to toast the day.
“And we’d do it all over again the very next day.
“We learned how to feed sharks and we did private charters. It was idyllic.
“The Caribbean was fabulous up until May 1, 2015. That day came and everything changed.”
It had been Gary’s idea to leave their jobs in radio behind, sell up and move their lives to the Caribbean.
He had seen a job advert and was never one to ignore an opportunity.
His first wife had died young from cancer and it had taught him that life was just too short to simply sit back and watch it pass by.
Kat recalled: “Life for us in the UK was good. We had a great life – a beautiful house and kids.
“But it was an opportunity that Gary thought he couldn’t miss.
“It was now or never and that’s why we both decided to go for it.
He grabbed hold of life with both hands…and we never looked back.
Kat Vanhoeck
“Yes, it was daunting. Moving to a new country, especially when it’s thousands and thousands of miles away from your family, is hard.
“But we both made it work. And it was the best decision Gary and I ever made.”
Gary purchased their boat Lucky Break – despite neither of them having any nautical experience – and Kat joined him weeks later armed with a few bikinis, shorts and a series of ‘how to’ books.
He loved the idea of living abroad, learning to sail and, as he sought to sell the idea to Kat, “living like pirates”.
She needed little persuading and they initially settled in the British Virgin Islands before eventually departing Tortola for the Bahamas in 2010.
Gary had been offered a job as operations manager at Stuart Cove’s world famous diving school and, like before, could not pass up the opportunity.
They docked the boat in the marina on the south west tip of New Providence where the James Bond films Thunderball and Casino Royale were filmed – and fell in love with the island of New Providence.
They made friends, worked hard and, above all else, lived like pirates. Then everything changed.
After a day at sea they returned to their tree in the marina, sank a bottle of beer and surveyed the idyllic life they had created.
Horror raid
They showered, then sat down for supper and settled down to watch a film.
By the time Kat wanted to turn in it was nearing 10pm. Gary stayed up to watch the end of the film but promised her he would be in soon.
Kat begins to shake and stares straight ahead, her eyes fixed as she recalls the horrendous memories of that night.
“The next thing, I’m getting pulled out of the bed,” she begins.
“A guy dressed from head to toe in black, the full shebang, black balaclava, says ‘get off the boat’.
“With that, I screamed and said, I can’t get off the boat, I’m naked.
“I was thrown to the floor and bound up with silver duct tape.
He bound my head in gaffer tape. I couldn’t see and I couldn’t breathe.
Kat Vanhoeck
“I kept thinking ‘what’s going to happen next? What are they going to do to me?’
“Are they going to rape me? Should I stay? Should I hide? Should I hide underneath the table?
“Do I hide on the other bed? All these things run through your mind.
“I sat there and couldn’t hear anything, so I felt my way to the bow of the boat and tried to find the end of the duct tape to unravel it and that’s what I did.
“It was stuck to my face, hair, everything.
“I looked around and couldn’t see anybody. And then I looked again and could see this person running and then just disappear.”
Tragic discovery
Kat looked around for Gary but there was no sign of him. She seized the opportunity to escape, running barefoot through the marina and half a mile up the road to a friend’s home.
She banged on the door until Charlotte and her boyfriend Beto answered and told them: “They’ve got Gary.”
The couple drove Kat back down towards the dive school which, by now, was swarming with police and paramedics.
Kat said: “As I walked in, I could see Gary. I started to run over to him but they pulled me back and said, ‘don’t let her go near him, they’re working on him’.
“I slumped to the floor and was picked up and placed in a chair nearby.
“The police were asking me questions and I was trying to answer, but all I kept saying to Charlotte was, ‘he’s alive, isn’t he? He’s alive?’
“Beto comes up and I’m saying it again and again. He disappears and I keep saying, ‘he’s alive?’
“When Beto reappeared Charlotte put her arms around me and said, ‘I’m sorry, Gary’s gone’.
“He’d been shot in the head.”
It all becomes too much and Kat breaks down in tears, her entire body physically pulsing from the trauma of reliving the ordeal.
But she vows to carry on, composes herself and resumes moments later – describing the immediate aftermath.
The police accompanied her back to the boat before she was taken to a nearby station where she was held for 16 hours as detectives tried to piece together what had happened.
She is sure they suspected her of involvement.
But CCTV from the marina corroborated her story, with the two men involved captured running from the boat and along the dock.
Searches later revealed they had made off with £6,000 worth of jewellery and Kat’s iPhone.
In the days that followed a drive-by shooting provided cops with their first big breakthrough.
A bullet casing from the latest scene matched the one next to Gary’s body – and this time they had a man in custody.
That night I lost everything, my husband, home and job. Having to rebuild my life over again has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do
Kat Vanhoeck
Brian Miller Jr, then 23, was charged with Gary’s murder, armed robbery, burglary and possession of an unlicensed Blacklight Point .40 pistol and 10 live rounds of ammunition. He denied all the charges.
Kat flew back to the UK with Gary’s ashes and remained for several months before returning to the British Virgin Islands alone.
But her life was frozen in time as Miller’s trial was repeatedly delayed due to administrative errors or overrunning cases.
This week his trial was postponed at the last minute for the 11th time.
He remains on bail, free to roam the sun-kissed island Kat once called home, whilst she continues to serves a life sentence.
Shocking injustice
After wiping the tears away with a tissue her face stiffens as she addresses the injustice of it all. “Gary’s life was taken in a millisecond,” she says.
“I have the memories, but life, you can’t bring back life, and that’s the biggest thing they took from me.
“I never thought I’d be still fighting for justice 10 years down the road. It’s wrong.
“You’re playing with someone’s life. Every time we get a court date, I have to relive it to prepare myself.
“If that had happened in the UK, this would have been over and done with within a year.
“All I want is justice for Gary. I want to know why he was murdered. There are so many unanswered questions.
“He was my life and I miss him dearly. Until I can get justice for him I can’t get on with my life.”
Kat is now back in the UK and has settled in Warminster close to her family – but the agony of that night lives on.
“That night I lost everything, my husband, home and job. Having to rebuild my life over again has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
She refuses to return to the Bahamas – even for the trial. “For me, paradise is now a living nightmare.