Woman’s scream leads to stolen yachts

TACOMA – An unexplained scream from a young woman who appeared to be unharmed led to the recovery of two stolen yachts worth more than $1 million and the arrest of a man, authorities said.

A 67-foot Bayliner that vanished from a local marina late last week was found Wednesday adrift near Day Island in Tacoma without its dinghy, which was later spotted a few miles away by a 45-foot stolen yacht near Fox Island, Coast Guard and local law enforcement officers said.

A 42-year-old Pierce County man on the smaller vessel was arrested for investigation of theft and possession of stolen property, police officer Tracy Dawn Conaway said.

One boat had been taken with the keys inside, the other was hot-wired, both bore signs of recent partying and investigators were trying to determine how many other people might be involved, said Conaway. Thurston County sheriff’s Capt. Daniel D. Kimball and Coast Guard officials confirmed the story.

A search began about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday after Buzz Johnson and others in the Johnson Point area of Olympia reported hearing a terrifying shriek from a yacht about 200 yards offshore in south Puget Sound.

“It was a life-and-death scream. It was one of those you never forget,” Johnson said.

Witnesses said the screaming stopped after about 30 seconds and the boat eventually passed behind Anderson Island, three miles to the east toward Tacoma.

Next, officials learned that a woman in Bremerton had dialed 911 about an hour earlier and said a friend had called to say she was being held against her will aboard a stolen boat, Kimball said.

Authorities said the screaming came from an 18-year-old woman who was located Wednesday at her home in Tacoma and said she had boarded the boat willingly with her boyfriend.

“She was showing no signs of any physical injury,” Conaway said. “We’re not quite sure what that was about.”

Meanwhile, investigation indicated the yacht was the Bayliner, which had no one aboard when it was located about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday by Gig Harbor police.

Hours later, Coast Guard personnel spotted the Bayliner’s dinghy and the second yacht.

The man who was arrested aboard the smaller vessel wore a T-shirt emblazoned “Innovator,” the name of the larger yacht, although the name on the boat had been painted over with the word “Nova,” authorities said.

Investigators also believe the Innovator, which bore some external damage, is the vessel that hit a dock Tuesday in Gig Harbor and left without anyone aboard reporting the collision.