Elizabeth “Liz” Waddell’s family has left Grenada with the search still unfinished and the worst question unanswered.
The 44-year-old North Carolina woman vanished during a Caribbean vacation, and her husband, Cailen, has now returned home after traveling to the island with the couple’s adult daughter to help authorities look for her.
Cailen framed the family’s departure as the end of what they could do on the island, not the end of the case.
“We have done what we can here, and the investigation will continue,” he wrote.
Waddell had been vacationing with a friend when she disappeared July 22 after going into the water near Grand Anse Beach in St. George’s. No foul play is suspected, but investigators still have not located her.
Her husband and daughter had flown from Cary, North Carolina, two days after she went missing. Cailen later thanked the Royal Grenada Police Force and Grenadian residents, calling the official response “compassionate” and saying locals had “warmly welcomed us and expressed so much genuine concern for Liz.”
The case now rests heavily on a narrow window of time, a beachside Airbnb and surveillance footage that shows Waddell going into the ocean but not coming back.
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Grenada Police Chief Randy Connaught said Tuesday that Waddell and her friend had spent the first part of their vacation at a resort on the island’s west side before moving July 21 to an Airbnb in the south.
The next morning, cameras placed Waddell near the short-term rental property. Connaught said she was seen walking toward a jetty at 11:36 a.m., sitting in the sun for several minutes and jumping into the ocean at 11:51 a.m.
By 12:04 p.m., she was swimming toward Grand Anse Beach.
The footage later showed her friend stepping outside at about 12:46 p.m. to look for her, then returning to the Airbnb. What it did not show, Connaught said, was Waddell “returning from the water.”
She was reported missing at 5:50 p.m.
In a Wednesday update, Cailen said investigators were still trying to determine Waddell’s movements between the last video sighting and the later sighting in the water around 5:30 p.m., along with “any further sightings.”
Waddell did not have her wallet, shoes, cash or cards when she went into the water, according to Cailen.
He also wrote that his wife had “communicated her confidence in her swimming and location, as well as the beauty of the island.”
Authorities have spent days searching and reviewing surveillance footage. Cailen said the family is not ready to speak with the press, but updates will continue through the family’s FindLiz.com website.
In Friday’s update, Cailen also turned to who Liz is to him.
Cailen said he met Liz at a dance festival in 2003 and had recently realized that their years together now outnumbered the years before they knew each other.
“I realized this year that Liz and I have been together longer in life than we have been apart. We balance each other, and that makes for a great partnership,” Cailen said.
He said he was “simply not ready to write about all the things Liz means to me.”
Instead, he pointed people to the family’s social media channels as the “best examples of who she is.”
Cailen also shared a photo from 22 years ago that appeared in his memories Thursday night, taken at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
“This picture, from the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, absolutely captures Liz’s spirit and sense of fun,” he wrote.
A separate missing-mother case in California has also reached a pause.
Angelica Brophy, a Kaiser emergency room nurse and mother of two, has been missing since July 6.
Oceanside police have now suspended coordinated ground searches in Palomar Mountain State Park after using all available search and rescue resources, an OPD spokesperson told NBC 7 Tuesday.
Brophy was seen that afternoon at Harrah’s Casino in Valley Center. About an hour later, she was spotted alone in her car at Palomar Mountain State Park.
Tips led searchers back into the field three more times, with Oceanside police joined by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, U.S. Border Patrol, San Diego police, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and California State Parks.
Brophy has not been located after those searches.
Oceanside police confirmed in a statement that coordinated ground search operations in Palomar Mountain State Park had been suspended.
OPD Chief Taurino Valdovinos stressed one point in particular.
“I want to emphasize that there is still no evidence of foul play in this case,” Valdovinos said, adding that investigators would continue working with Brophy’s family.
Police said they are still following every lead and plan to coordinate with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and California State Parks personnel this week on next steps.
Fabregas, describing the range of possibilities the family has considered, said he does not believe Brophy harmed herself in the wilderness.
“It could be anything. She could be in need of rescue. She could be abducted,” Fabregas said. “We’ve considered every possible outcome. Nothing is too incredible or too outlandish. We will pursue everything.”
Fabregas said relatives, friends and strangers are still searching, even if the official effort is no longer at the intensity the family would like.
“We’re still encouraged. We’re still looking,” Fabregas said, adding that he was not criticizing the extensive search effort.
