Daughter returns after Honduran pirate ordeal

A Facebook photo of Myda Egrmajer. The 24-year-old former Ottawa woman survived a pirate attack in Honduras in which her father was shot and killed.

OTTAWA - Myda Egrmajer headed home to Canada Monday after a harrowing ordeal with pirates in which her father was shot to death and the 24-year-old former Ottawa woman was left to fight for her life at sea in a tropical storm.

The melancholy denouement of Myda and her father, Milan, Egrmajer's dream trip played itself out yesterday as Honduran officials recovered his bullet-ridden body from his sailboat, which lay capsized off the Honduran coast.

Egrmajer, 58, and his daughter Myda, 24, had been cruising the Caribbean Sea when bad weather forced them to take shelter in a lagoon near the northern town of Tela on Thursday.

Relaying Myda's harrowing report, Abelino Gomez, head of the country's National Office of Criminal Investigation, told La Prensa newspaper yesterday that after they had anchored there, the Egrmajers were set upon by four men about 6 p.m. Thursday.

She was able to escape injury by hiding inside the boat, but the pirates shot Milan Egrmajer four times, and looted the vessel of food, electronics and money, according to La Prensa.

Myda then managed to frighten the pirates off by firing a flare gun, said her cousin, Eric van Riesen. "She's a brave girl," says van Riesen by phone from St. Catharines, adding that Egrmajer kept no weapons on his yacht.

Myda's ordeal was far from over, though: Alone, and with no previous sailing experience, she endured hours of terror in seas so heavy that, according to Nelson Varela, commander of the naval base of La Ceiba, the Honduran navy did not dare attempt a rescue, La Prensa reported.

Lashing rains and rough surf made rescue impossible, Gomez explained: "On Friday it was impossible to reach the area ... because of bad weather," he told the paper.

Despite a series of frantic 911 calls and Myda's flare on Thursday, no help arrived until Friday morning, when a passing vessel rescued her, taking her to Belize, van Riesen said.

Myda "attempted to pilot the vessel, and motor it toward the ship, but the engines conked out and were starting to smoke, and she started to drift on high seas," said van Riesen, who heard the account from Myda's mother, Willa Wilson, Saturday night.

The vessel dispatched a lifeboat; after the crew had rescued her, "the last they saw (Myda's) ship was heading toward the rocks."

The rescue does raise the question of why a private vessel was able to intervene when the Honduran navy did not, van Riesen says, "We don't know all the circumstances yet, but it's frustrating ... "Here's a girl who has seen her Dad murdered, and spent hours waiting for Honduran officials to rescue her, and they say 'We can't get there because of bad weather.' "

Milan Egrmajer, an electrical engineer, ran a successful business in Ottawa for 20 years before moving to St. Catharines in 2007. He embarked on his dream trip, a cruise along the coast of North America, in July 2008. Myda, a graduate of Colonel By High School, finished a degree in International Development at Trent University earlier this year; she joined her father a few weeks ago.

Jordan Walsh, Canadian consul for Honduras, was present as officials recovered Egrmajer's body, said La Prensa, although Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Laura Markle could not confirm this or any details concerning Myda's return to Canada, citing privacy concerns.

Egrmajer's body is being transferred to the morgue in San Pedro Sula before repatriation, according to La Prensa.

Canadian Woman Rescued In Belizean Waters

They were attacked by pirates in the Waters of Honduras on Friday - while on their yacht. The father Milan Egrmejer was shot to death during the attack. It is still uncertain as to what happened, but from what we understand, the Egrmejer's decided to camp on a riverbank near the sea last Thursday -and sheltered in a remote lagoon called El Diamante - where boaters regularly overnight. At some point during the night, it is said that four pirates climbed aboard the Egrmjer's Ericson 35 sailing yacht and shot Milan Egrmjer 4 times at close range. Myra - his 24 year old daughter managed to chase off the assailants and piloted the boat - until she met a passing vessel that was heading to Belize. The Belize Coast Guard was first informed on Friday night and told Seven News today that Myda Egrmejer arrived at the English Caye channel around 5 o'clock on Saturday morning.

Lt. Gregory Soberanis, Commander Ops. Bze. Coast Guard
"Approximately 11:45 PM Friday night, we receive information from police control of a incident that had occurred in Honduras waters, reference 2 Canadian nationals. In regards to the coast guard assistance in this entire operation was the fact that the vessel that retrieve one of the individuals was heading towards Belize. The coast guard was ask to board the vessel and confirm that one of the individuals was onboard that vessel. That was how we initially reacted and responded to the situation. Shortly after we receive that information and we receive the name of the vessel that had retrieve one of the individuals I immediate liaise with personnel from the Belize Port authority who track these vessels coming into our waters, we immediately located the tanker, it was a tanker 'Tessa PG' we immediately located it on the tracking system that the Belize Port Authority has and we were able to make contact with the master of that vessel. The location of the vessel was actually between 2-3 hours south of the English Caye channel, so the vessel was already in our waters. I was able to speak with the captain of the vessel who confirm that indeed was onboard the vessel was a young lady who was a Canadian national and the situation that he stated to me was that the young lady and her father was onboard a sailing vessel in Honduras heading towards Panama when they were hijack by robbers, the father was said to have been killed, the young lady violated and they were left adrift at sea where they were later retrieve by the tanker that was bringing them to Belize."

Monica Bodden
"Was the body of the man brought into Belize City?"

Lt. Gregory Soberanis, Commander Ops. Bze. Coast Guard
"No, they say that they were unable to retrieve the body of the father, but they were able to have the young lady come aboard and bring her along with them to Belize."

"The expected time of arrival at the English Caye Channel the Saturday morning was at 5 o' clock that morning, so what we did was we liaise with the police department and we had their personnel along with our quick reaction crew meet the vessel at the English Caye Channel where the vessel was escorting to the port facility at ESSO actually here in Belize City later that morning. At this time the vessel like I said because the incident did not occur Belizean waters it was left adrift in Honduras waters, that's what the captain of the tanker told us."

Milan Egrmajer was a semi retired engineer who had been sailing in Central American waters since 2008.

Myda left the country to return to Canada today. The incident we stress did not occur in Belizean waters….

Channel 7

Canadian woman witness the murder of her father by pirates

Sandie Rinaldo

A twenty-four year old Canadian woman whose father was murdered on their yacht on the high seas is back in Canada. The woman, Myda Egrmajer, was brought here by the Belize Coastguard early on Saturday morning after she was rescued by a tanker in Honduran waters. She witnessed the murder of her father by several pirates who stormed their vessel and gunned down Milan Egrmajer. We have first the following report aired today on CTV News in Canada.

Sandie Rinaldo, CTV News

An Ontario woman who reports say witnessed her father’s murder aboard his sailboat in Honduras is on her way home. Milan Egrmajer and his daughter Myda had docked their boat to ride out some bad weather when they were attacked by pirates. It is believed Egrmajer was shot four times before his twenty-four year old daughter frightened off the attackers using a flare gun. Milan Egrmajer who is a semi-retired engineer has been sailing since 2008.

Channel 5

Belize National Coast Guard to the rescue of Canadian Woman

myda egrmajer

As CTV News in Canada reported, the fifty-eight year old sailor was shot four times and his daughter was robbed. Myda was rescued by an oil tanker traveling from Honduras and she was brought to Belize. She was interviewed by local authorities on Saturday and left from the PGIA on Sunday for Canada. News Five’s Marion Ali has a report on the rescue mission.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Twenty-four year old Myda Egrmajer landed in Toronto, Canada on Monday and has now moved on to northern Ontario with her mother and brother to mourn the brutal murder of her father.

milan egrmajer

Egrmajer was rescued in Honduran waters by an oil tanker named the Tessa PG that was traveling from Honduras to Belize on Friday night, after pirates accosted her and her father on board their yacht as they weathering a storm in a remote lagoon off the coast of Honduras.

According to Lieutenant Gregory Soberanis, the Operations Officer at the Belize National Coast Guard, the father and daughter team were touring the region and had left Guatemala before moving onto Honduras. Their plans would have taken them further south to Panama when the incident occurred. The pirates boarded the vessel unawares to her and robbed and shot Milan four times. Myda later discovered him dead. After the Tessa PG radioed local authorities to inform that they had rescued and were bringing the victim to Belize, the Coast Guard spun into action to offer help.

Lt. Gregory Soberanis, Operatons Officer, BNCG

“Our vessel escorted the tanker through the channel and then further on to Belize City. The expected time of arrival for the port at English Caye Channel was five o’clock Saturday morning. We had our quick reaction crew along with members of the Police Department move to that location, escorted the vessel to port here in Belize City where members of the vessel along with the young lady on board were interviewed by the police department. The young lady was later transferred to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to where she received further medical attention. “

Marion Ali

“She was injured? Can you tell us?

Lt. Gregory Soberanis

gregory soberanis

“No they just wanted to make sure that she was ok.”

After Myda Egrmajer was brought to shore early Saturday morning, she told her story to local authorities.

Lt. Gregory Soberanis

“The young lady in the initial interview was quite shaken and hence the reason she was taken to get medical attention and then thereafter again by the police. She said that everything happened so very quickly that she couldn’t recall faces, numbers description of what they had on. Like I said, they were caught by surprise.”

But even though she was caught by surprise MydaEgrmajer mustered the courage to scare off the thieves using a flare gun. The incident is one that Lieutenant Soberanis says the local Coast Guard tries its best from happening in Belizean waters.

Lt. Gregory Soberanis

“We can respond to any incident in our maritime spaces. As I mentioned earlier we do have units that are deployed strategically along our coastline and once we respond, we will be able to render aid to victims who are in distress in our sea spaces.”

Marion Ali

“And your response will be in a reasonable time.”

Lt. Gregory Soberanis

“It will definitely be in a reasonable time.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

More reports on the Killing of Canadian sailor, Milan Egrmajer

Milan Egrmajer

Honduran authorities still have no suspects for Thursday night’s grisly killing of fifty-five year old Milan Egrmajer. The Canadian sailor was killed on his private yacht while he and his daughter, twenty four year old Myda sheltered from a bad storm in a lagoon off the coast of Honduras. Myda has since travelled to northern Ontario where she is said to be putting on a brave face as she deals with the trauma of her father’s murder. His body was discovered inside the boat by Honduran authorities on Friday, after she managed to ward off the attackers using a flare gun. The occupants of the Tessa PG oil tanker that was leaving Honduras for Belize picked up the distraught young woman and brought her to shore here where local authorities took a statement from her. She departed the country on Sunday. The story has been in the headlines in Canada since Saturday and here’s what CTV reports.

{Report from CTV News in Canada…}

Caribbean Piracy; A cold wind is blowing over the fraternity of Caribbean cruising sailors.

In the fraternity of sailing, the loss of a boat cuts deep. Every sailor knows only too well that but for circumstance and, perhaps, the grace of God, they, too, could succumb to a watery grave regardless of their skill and diligence. A sudden storm. A lost mast. A treacherous shoal. Such hazards stir nightmares even when the boat rides safely at anchor.

But as if these dangers weren't enough, there is a "new" old threat lurking in the bright waters of the Caribbean -- piracy.

Milan Egrmajer, 58, a longtime Ottawa resident was killed Dec. 3 by bandits who boarded his boat, the s/v Adena, after he'd taken shelter from a storm in the isolated Laguna El Diamante, near the town of Tela in northern Honduras. He was shot four times in the chest and abdomen and left for dead in the cabin. His 24-year-old daughter, Myda, was on board, but escaped physical attack and fired a flare gun that prompted the bandits to flee. The daughter has since returned to the family home on Manitoulin island in northern Ontario. Family members describe her as too shaken by the ordeal to speak about it, even to them.

Others have been shaken, too. The tragedy has rippled through the tight-knit world of Caribbean cruising. Egrmajer was a well-known and popular member of the small sailing community that calls the Honduran port of Rio Dolce their wintering home. After departing St. Catharines, Ont., in late 2008 and sailing down the east coast of the United States, he spent the last two winters in Rio Dolce, venturing out to explore the Caribbean. He was heading for Panama with his daughter when he was killed.

"Milan was well known and loved among the cruisers on Rio Dulce," one correspondent informs the readers of the Rio Dulce Chisme-Vindicator. "I cannot comprehend the senselessness of his death."

"That big happy smile was his trademark," said another. "But I'd never seen him happier than the days when Myda was here on the Rio with him ... bustling about getting s/v Adena ready for their much anticipated cruise to Panama."

Among the mourners is Chris Herrnberger, a longtime friend of Egrmajer and a fellow sailing enthusiast who has set up a website, http://svadena. wordpress.com,to honour his friend and provide others with a vehicle for offering their condolences to his family. "Milan was a much more seasoned sailor than I am," Herrnberger told the Citizen. "I always looked at him as my mentor."

Egrmajer's death is hard to accept if only because he was such a skilled and cautious sailor, says Herrnberger. Milan, he says, wouldn't have invited his daughter to join him if he didn't think it was safe. "His philosophy was to stay out of areas where there had been reported attacks. He was well informed. Besides, he was very meticulous (as a sailor), and one of the protocols he insisted on for his boat was that there be absolutely no weapons on board, not even machetes. In the event of a boarding, there was to be no resistance."

A week before the attack on the Adena, a French couple, owners of the catamaran s/v Marione, were attacked near the area where Egrmajer would be killed a week later. "Jean-Louis and Cathy said they were boarded in the middle of the night Wednesday Nov. 24 by six men armed with guns and machetes," the Chisme-Vindicator reported. "'They stole our dinghy and motor, computers, camera, telephone, money etc. We were not harmed. We tried to talk to the attackers trying to calm them down (we speak some Spanish)'."

Egrmajer was likely aware of the attack on the French couple, says Herrnberger, and probably sailed into the area only to avoid getting caught in a storm at sea. "There must have been severe weather for him to feel he had no option but to go in there for shelter." In other words, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That may have been Herrnberger's fate, too, if Myda hadn't been aboard. Herrnberger was one of three friends that Egrmajer had asked to consider crewing the Adena on its Panama voyage if his daughter hadn't decided to join him. Might things have turned out differently if Herrnberger or one of the others had been there instead of Myda? "That's one of those questions you bust your head over," Herrnberger says. "It's one of those circumstances in life that you look at and say, 'There but for the grace of God, go I.' Would things have been different if one of us had been on board? I don't know."

What he does know is he's lost a good friend, and prefers to remember him in a positive light. "I have a tremendous sense of loss. Milan was someone who understood what sailing is all about. Sailors are basically dreamers. The difference between Milan and a lot of others is that he had the courage to live his dream. He was doing exactly what he wanted to do. As he put it in one of his e-mails to me, 'I say to many that if I die tomorrow, I am most happy with the life I have enjoyed so far, I don't need more.' That's how I want to remember my friend."

Maybe so, but there is also widespread anger at what some see as negligence of Honduran authorities. The attacks on Egrmajer and the French couple have prompted some to question whether the Honduran government and its security forces are able to deal with the bandits. If not, some suggest, maybe it's time for the expatriate community to weigh anchor and sail away. "(I) have talked to many business owners here who are puzzled at the lack of cruising boats," one correspondent wrote in the online paper. "Maybe if we all left they would figure it out."

"The Honduran government must step up and take control of this situation, (otherwise) other governments will step in for them," said another.

Others, however, are scathingly sarcastic about the Honduran authorities. "Now you all come down and enjoy the benefits and beauty of such a great place," says one person. "Please do not note that others have been murdered trying to do the same thing while impotent, corrupt, overly tolerant local governments do not provide security or prosecution in case of a violent crime committed against you or your loved ones."

Sarcasm aside, it does seem that piracy in the Caribbean is on the rise, and, contrary to Hollywood's Pirates of the Caribbean, there is nothing romantic about it.

In early April, a German couple, Hans Jorgen Ropke and his wife, Angelica Ropke-Wiels, were attacked by pirates who boarded their boat, Spirit of Cologne II, about a mile off the north coast of Venezuela along the Paria de Peninsula. The husband was shot and killed. The attackers left, and the woman continued sailing for four days, but she was unable raise the alarm because the bandits had taken all the communications equipment. She eventually abandoned the boat, leaving her husband's body on board, in favour of the life raft. She drifted for nearly two weeks before being rescued on April 16 by a merchant ship off the coast of Curacao.

The north coast of Venezuela appears to be one of the most dangerous cruising areas in the Caribbean. In mid-October, a couple aboard the sailboat Boldly Go was boarded by four armed men about 30 kilometres out of Lost Testigoes, near the port of Palomar. The bandits stripped the boat of anything valuable.

But elsewhere, too, are reports of burglaries, armed robberies and killings at sea. In early July, the skipper of the yacht Altares was killed and two others, a man and woman, seriously wounded when five pirates boarded their boat at about 3 a.m. while it was anchored at sea off the coast of Panama, near the Port of Pedregal. The man was shot in the chest, while the woman was severely beat about the face.

On Oct. 13, six armed and masked men boarded the Two Amigos while it was anchored off Quepos, Costa Rica. They tied up the two male crew members for two hours while they stripped the boat of its radar, electronics, radio and cash, as well as personal belongings. According to a sailors' website, "local police were unable to help much" because the bandits fled to an area that police "regard as a no-area."

Complaints about the incompetence of local authorities, or their unwillingness to pursue the pirates, are common among the sailing fraternity. But then some suggest the negligence of the authorities reveals the gradual breakdown of law and order in the region. As Herrnberger puts it: "In my opinion, the attack (on Egrmajer) reflects the state of affairs in Honduras."

Or, as other commentators observe in the Rio Dulce Chisme-Vindicator: "The handwriting is on the wall.

"As the world economies continue with the disparities of the haves and the have-nots, while the world media shows the haves and all their wealth for the have-nots to view on TV, movies and in personal reality, the have-nots will seek to take from the haves by force.

"Paradise lost."

Robert Sibley is a senior writer for the Citizen.

The Ottawa Citizen

Milan Egrmajer, 58, was shot and killed Friday by pirates off the coast of Honduras. His daughter, Myda, escaped by hiding in the boat.

Canadian Milan Egrmajer was killed by pirates after he and his daughter docked their boat near Tela in northern Honduras.