An American woman went missing after she was carried out to sea during a nighttime dinghy ride with her husband near the Bahamas, according to authorities.
Police said the couple had been traveling Saturday evening from Hope Town toward Elbow Cay when the woman, whose identity has not been released, ended up in the water.
Her husband later told investigators she had been holding the boat’s keys at the time.
When she fell overboard, the engine had stopped running. Unable to restart it, he spent hours paddling the small 8-foot vessel on his own until he finally reached land early Sunday morning.
At some point after she went into the water, he could no longer see her and continued paddling toward shore.
The pair had set out around 7:30 p.m. from Hope Town, but during the trip the woman was pulled away by a strong current, officials said.
He finally reached the Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 4 a.m., where he told someone what happened; they subsequently contacted police.
Police on Abaco have started looking into what happened, and search teams, including the Royal Bahamas Defense Force and local fire and rescue crews, are out trying to find her.
U.S. officials have not provided immediate comment.
The State Department confirmed it is coordinating with Bahamian authorities to assist, though further details have not been released at this time.
The Bahamas is currently listed under a Level 2 travel advisory by the U.S. State Department.
Travelers are urged to stay alert in popular areas where crimes like theft and robbery can occur and to use caution when operating or riding in boats, as safety regulations may be limited and past incidents have resulted in injuries and fatalities.
This isn’t the first time a tourist has gone missing in the area.
Back in June 2024, 41-year-old Taylor Casey from Chicago vanished while attending a retreat in the Bahamas. A few days later, her phone was discovered on the ocean floor.
Her mother, Colette Seymore, later said she wasn’t happy with how authorities handled the case and had concerns about how the retreat responded to her daughter’s disappearance.
She felt the retreat had a controlling vibe and felt that some people may have been pressurized follow the leaders, even if it meant staying quiet instead of sharing important information.
There have also been several shark-related incidents in the Bahamas in recent years.
One such case involved a 10-year-old boy from Maryland, who was bitten while inside a shark tank at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island.
Another incident happened in 2022, when a 58-year-old American woman died after a shark attack during a cruise stop. She had been snorkeling with family members when a bull shark attacked her.
