Gary and Kat Vanhoeck couldn’t believe their luck as they gazed out over the Bahamas’ beautiful crystal blue waters.
After selling up in the UK, they purchased a 36-foot yacht and began a new life in paradise with no worries in the world.
Neither of them knew anything about sailing, but diving teacher Gary insisted they would learn.
“Will it be a dream or the biggest mistake you’ve ever made?” he wrote ahead of their next excursion.
“If you don’t try it, you’ll always wonder.” So here we go.
They embraced their new life with the same zeal and passion, using books to learn how to sail and never looking back.
Gary and Kat spent five fantastic years taking groups of scuba divers down into the depths before returning onshore to relax in the scenic grandeur made famous by 007.
But their lovely new existence was tragically disrupted when two armed robbers snuck aboard in the middle of the night.
In the ensuing chaos, Gary, 51, was led off the boat and executed near 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 put silver duct tape around her head, making her unable to see and breathe.
After what seemed like an eternity, silence fell across the boat, and Kat felt her way out to the bow, peeling aside the layers of gaffer tape before making a break for it.
Today, in her first and only interview, she recounts her ordeal in graphic detail, revealing the stunning errors that have left her seeking justice a decade later.
Dream life
Holding a tissue in one hand. Kat, aged 55, begins: “The Caribbean is what you see on television; it was wonderful.
“Clear blue seas and white sands, the Mecca of the sailing world.
“It exceeded all of our expectations. Every day was unique, yet the sun always shone.
“We used to go sit beneath a tree and drink beer to celebrate the day.
“And we’d do it again the next day.
“We learnt how to feed sharks and organized private charters. It was ideal.
“The Caribbean was fantastic up until May 1, 2015. That day arrived, and everything changed.
Gary had proposed that they quit their jobs in radio, sell their belongings, and relocate to the Caribbean.
He had read a job advertisement and was never one to turn down a chance.
His first wife died young of cancer, and it taught him that life was too brief to sit back and let it go by.
Kat recalls, “Life for us in the UK was good. We had a wonderful life with a beautiful house and children.
“But Gary saw an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.
“It was now or never, which is why we both agreed to go for it.
“Yes, it was daunting. Moving to a new nation, especially when you’re thousands of miles away from your family, is difficult.
“However, we both made it work. And that was the best decision Gary and I had ever made.
Gary bought their yacht, Lucky Break, despite neither of them having any maritime expertise, and Kat joined him weeks later, armed with a few bikinis, shorts, and a series of ‘how to’ books.
He adored the thought of living abroad, learning to sail, and, as he tried to sell the idea to Kat, “living like pirates”.
She took little convincing, and they first resided in the British Virgin Islands before leaving Tortola for the Bahamas in 2010.
Gary had been given a position as operations manager at Stuart Cove’s world-renowned diving school and, like before, could not pass it up.
They docked the yacht in the port on New Providence’s south-west tip, where the James Bond films Thunderball and Casino Royale were filmed, and fell in love with the island.
They made friends, worked hard, and, most importantly, lived the pirate lifestyle. Then, everything changed.
After a day at sea, they returned to their marina tree, downed a bottle of beer, and reflected on their lovely existence.
Horror raid
They washed before sitting down to eat dinner and watching a movie.
It was about 10 p.m. when Kat wanted to turn in. Gary stayed up to watch the film’s ending, but promised her he’d be in soon.
Kat begins to shiver and stares straight ahead, her gaze fixated as she recalls the horrific events of that night.
“The next thing, I’m getting pulled out of the bed,” she tells me.
“A person clothed from head to toe in black, complete with a black balaclava, says ‘get off the boat’.
“With that, I screamed, ‘I can’t get off the boat; I’m nude.
“I was tossed on the floor and wrapped with silver duct tape.
“I was thinking, ‘What’s going to happen next? ‘What will they do to me?’
“Are they planning to rape me? Should I stay? Should I hide? Should I hide below the table?
“Should I hide on the other bed?” All of these thoughts race through your mind.
“I sat there and couldn’t hear anything, so I felt my way to the bow of the boat and attempted to find the end of the duct tape to unwind it, which I did.
“It was stuck on my face, hair, and everything.
“I looked around and didn’t see anyone. And then I glanced again and saw this person sprinting, then disappearing.”
Tragic discovery
Kat looked around for Gary, but there was no sign of him. She grabbed the opportunity to flee, dashing barefoot through the marina and half a mile up the road to a friend’s house.
She hammered on the door until Charlotte and her boyfriend Beto answered, saying, “They’ve got Gary.”
The pair drove Kat back down to the dive school, which was now teeming with police and paramedics.
Kat stated, “As I stepped in, I saw Gary. I wanted to run up to him, but they stopped me and said, ‘Don’t allow her go close him; they’re working on him.
“I slumped to the ground and was picked up and placed in a nearby chair.”
“The cops were questioning me, and I was trying to respond, but all I could say to Charlotte was, ‘He’s alive, isn’t he? Is he alive?
“Beto comes up, and I say it repeatedly. He vanishes, and I keep thinking, ‘He’s still alive?’
“When Beto reappeared, Charlotte wrapped her arms around me and whispered, ‘I’m sorry, Gary’s gone.
“He’d been shot in the head.”
It all becomes too much for Kat, and she bursts into sobs, her entire body pulsating with the anguish of repeating the incident.
But she resolves to continue, collects herself, and resumes seconds later, recounting the immediate aftermath.
The police took her back to the boat before transporting her to a local station, where she was detained for 16 hours as detectives attempted to piece together what had occurred.
She is certain they accuse her of complicity.
However, CCTV footage from the marina verified her story, with the two guys involved seen sprinting from the boat and along the dock.
Later searches indicated that they had stolen ÂŁ6,000 in jewels and Kat’s iPhone.
In the days that followed, a drive-by shooting gave cops their first major breakthrough.
A bullet casing from the most recent scene matched the one adjacent to Gary’s body, and this time they had a suspect in custody.
That night, I lost everything, including my husband and home.
Brian Miller Jr., then 23, was charged with Gary’s murder, armed robbery, burglary, and possessing an unauthorized Blacklight Point. 40 pistols and ten live rounds of ammunition. He refuted all charges.
Kat sailed back to the United Kingdom with Gary’s ashes, staying for several months before returning to the British Virgin Islands alone.
However, her life was stuck in time while Miller’s trial was frequently postponed owing to administrative blunders or overrunning cases.
This week, his trial was postponed at the last minute for the eleventh time.
He remains on bail, while Kat continues to serve a life sentence.
Shocking injustice
After wiping away her tears with a tissue, her face stiffens as she confronts the injustice of it. “Gary’s life was taken in a millisecond,” she tells me.
“I have the memories, but life cannot be restored, and that is the most important thing they took away from me.
“I never expected to be battling for justice 10 years later. It’s wrong.
“You’re messing with someone’s life. Every time we get a court date, I have to go through it again to prepare myself.
“If that had happened in the UK, this would have been resolved within a year.
“I only want justice for Gary. I want to know why he was slain. There are numerous unsolved questions.
“He was my life, and I mourn him deeply. “I can’t move on with my life until I get justice for him.”
Kat has returned to the UK and lived in Warminster, near her family, but the misery of that night continues.
“That night, I lost everything: my husband, home, and career. “Having to rebuild my life from scratch has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.”
She refuses to return to the Bahamas, including for the trial. “For me, paradise has become a living nightmare.
