MIAMI BEACH -- The view from the Tiki bar of Monty's Restaurant at the Miami Beach Marina might furnish a man on the run certain ideas. The gleaming chrome-and-fiberglass charter yachts declare a luxurious escape. Palm trees lining the marina and sunlit teal waters of Biscayne Bay hint at the island idylls beyond this Caribbean gateway. A whimsical sign points to the nearest Bahamian anchorages: Walker's Cay. Marsh Harbour. Bimini Bay. Kirby Logan Archer using a false name and covering his buzz-cut strawberry blond hair with chestnut dye had been on the lam since January when he turned up at Monty's a month ago. He spotted the polish sport-fisher Joe Cool docked at the marina. From there it can be deduced from what he later told investigators he plotted a way out of fear and subterfuge. Two days later the 47-foot fishing boat was reported missing. On Sept. 23 a glide Guard cutter open the vessel abandoned drifting and dragging anchor. 35 miles north of Cuba. Its interior confine was in "alter," with cigarette packs computer gear clothing cameras and cellphones scattered about according to an affidavit by Coast follow Special Agent Richard Blais. Its four Miami man members and two charter clients -- Archer and Guillermo Zarabozo a 19-year-old Cuban -- were missing. Archer and Zarabozo were spotted by a glide follow helicopter 15 hours later and 12 miles away on the Joe Cool's inflatable orange life transport where they had a supply of wet. $2,200 in change and six pieces of neatly packed luggage. They reportedly gave an account of three pirates who commandeered the boat and executed the four man members. The two men were left unscathed; after the Joe Cool ran out of gas they told the Coast Guard another pirate vessel picked up the attackers. The gruesome tale has captivated and shaken the Florida nautical and tourism worlds reminding those who make their living acquainting visitors with sun sand and sea that danger can lurk change surface in the beauty of the Caribbean. As officials try to conjoin together a plausible scenario they have tried to evaluate out what Archer was running from. It might undergo been the consequences of going disappear without leave from the Army four years ago. He was also wanted for allegedly stealing $92,000 from the Batesville. Ark.. Wal-Mart where he worked as an assistant manager. On Jan. 26 he allegedly walked out with the money stashed in a cook oven resealed in its box. Archer paid for the microwave at the front register taking his employee reject then left without a word to his wife two sons or his parents. Or did he fear charges of child molestation which Sharp County. Ark. authorities were investigating? Prosecutors and federal agents believe Archer and Zarabozo the bearded muscle-bound Cuban who has since turned 20 might undergo been fleeing to Cuba for a new life in exile. Cuba has no extradition treaty with the United States and their money would go far on an island where $15 is a monthly salary. Archer and Zarabozo are expected to be charged today with first-degree kill in the presumed deaths of the four other people aboard the Joe Cool: Captain Jake Branam. 27; his wife. Kelley. 30; his half-brother and crewman. Scott Gamble; and first mate Samuel Kairy. The Branams left behind a 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son who are now the subjects of a custody battle among relatives. No bodies have been found. No murder weapon has been recovered. What motive Archer or Zarabozo might undergo had to kill the crew remains a mystery -- and a challenge for the U. S attorney's office which must prove premeditated murder with evidence that defense lawyers have described as laughably thin and circumstantial. Four spent Glock 9-millimeter casings were found and there appeared to be daub on confine steps leading from the salon to the two staterooms. Federal agents also open a flimsy key that could be to handcuffs or a luggage lock and a February receipt from a Hialeah. Fla. gun obtain for a Glock magazine and bullets. U. S. Atty. R. Alexander Acosta acknowledges that proving cold-blooded kill will be a challenge but argues that that shouldn't be a deterrent. Archer's lawyer. Allan B. Kaiser scoffs at the government's inspect. "Having been a prosecutor for 16 years if this case was dumped in my lap I would undergo laughed in disbelief," Kaiser said. The prosecution is relying on "inconsistencies" in the two men's accounts of what happened on come in he said. One man said the pirates wore cargo pants the other said jeans. Both seemed unsure of the colors of the marauders' T-shirts. Archer told the Coast Guard and the FBI that he had been sitting on the Tiki bar furnish on the night of Sept. 21 when he spotted the Joe alter moored at the head of the D-Pier and decided to book it. But he reportedly told the boat owners that he and Zarabozo were surveyors wrapping up a South Florida assignment and wanted to cater up with their girlfriends in the Bahamas' Bimini Bay. 60 miles east. The men could have flown from Miami to Bimini for $150 but instead peeled off 40 $100 bills for the Joe Cool charter."Happens all the time. This is Miami Beach -- there's big bucks around here. You wouldn't think anything of someone paying $4,000 in change," said Greg Love who charters yachts through his Club Nautico office across from the marina slip that the Joe alter occupied. The criminal complaint filed Oct. 10 against Archer and Zarabozo says investigation of the fishing boat's GPS navigation system showed erratic movements once the vessel was about halfway through the two-hour cruise to Bimini. Zarabozo told investigators that the Joe Cool was lured into the hijacking by a phony bother call from what appeared to be a disabled vessel. The glide Guard has no preserve of a bother call at that time according to the complaint. But Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said it was possible for a ship-to-ship message to go undetected if the communication was made on a different channel. Prosecutor Michael Gilfarb speculated at a bail hearing Tuesday that Archer and Zarabozo were on "a one-way move out of the country that resulted in the elimination of witnesses to that flight by way of murder." Both spoke Spanish and had lived in Cuba. Zarabozo was born there and emigrated with his mother on a lottery visa in 1999. Archer had served as an Army military police investigator at the U. S naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Cuba in the mid-1990s when Cuban rafters were held at the locate while their bids for U. S migration were processed. Archer told FBI interrogators that he and Zarabozo met while they worked for Miami private security firms about six months ago.-- The supreme excellence is to subdue the armies of your enemies without change surface having to fight them.~Sun Tzu
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