In late 2010, a Spaniard named Xavier Martin sailed into San Blas but wrecked his boat on the reef. This was the very wreck we would snorkel over on this trip. Martin ended up living on one of the Kuna islands where we originally boarded the Corto II. He befreinded some of the local sailors, including our skipper Sebastian.
What no one knew was that Martin was a serial killer. The boat that he wrecked on the reef belonged to an American couple, or an American and French-Canadian couple, depending on who is telling the story. Papers were later found that show that this wrecked boat was stolen. The bodies of this couple have never been found.
French sailor Jean Pierre Bouhard, owner of The Levante, offered Martin a job helping him crew his catamaran to Cartagena. When The Levante returned from Colombia, Martin was alone and had renamed the boat with a poor quality paint job. The Levante was a unique boat, built in Venezuala for Bouhard. No one knew what had become of Jean Pierre.
Meanwhile, Martin appeared back in San Blas and offered to help American Don North take his boat, The Wind Dancer, on a run to the South. There were a load of touristas in Cartagena and it would be easy money to bring them back to San Blas. Don North was never seen again and The Windancer disappeared.
As folks in the United States started wondering about North's whereabouts, the body of Jean Pierre Bouhard floated to the surface. Jean Pierre had been chained to a chair, his fingers had been cut off, and acid had been dumped on his head. When the body began to decompose, the gases floated the corpse to the surface where it was found by scuba divers.
Don North's boat was located and tests discovered traces of human blood onboard. Panamanian law enforcement began a country-wide man-hunt for Martin. With the help of television announcements, Martin was finally discovered in a small town on the Transamerica highway in Darien Province. In his possesion were three firearms, papers for several of the boats, and a credit card belonging to North.
Martin is now serving time in a Panamanian Prison. He has been tried for several of these crimes, but has not been prosecuted for the disapperance of the couple, nor for other crimes he is thought to have commited.
The story was spooky and horrible. I would not want to sail on the Santana, which was bought by ToTe's uncle. El Capitan Sebastian and ToTe both knew Xavier Martin, as well as Don North and Jean Pierre. Sebastian was especially close to Jean Pierre and spent many hours in his company, as did the resst of the San Blas sailing community.
As the sun set, we whiled away the hours re-hashing the story and contemplating ghosts on the waters of the peaceful San Blas islands
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