The account of August 9th attack.

Nancy's account of the attack prepared for the Guatemalan judge to establish a case for solving Dan's death.


On Saturday August 9, 2008 we were anchored in the middle of Monkey Bay on our sailboat, Sunday's Child. We motored to this location on Friday afternoon (August 8) from the El Relleno Marina (10-15 minutes away). All day, Saturday, we did 'boat chores'. Dan was in the starboard cockpit locker fixing corroded connections to the starter motor, and I scrubbed the green growth on the boat bottom using the dinghy.

I stopped around 6:30 pm while Dan put things away in the starboard locker where he had been working (lines, life jackets, fenders, etc.). When Dan was done, we enjoyed the clouds of the sunset. There was loud music with electronic bass coming from the north side of the river. We could not identify the source of the music. We preferred calmer music and went into our cabin below to hear our own classical music. We washed with a sponge bath and Dan wrapped a towel around himself. I put on a shirt and underpants. At 8:30 pm we were making a salad for dinner, and we heard a sound of something knocking into the hull.

Dan headed up to the cockpit to identify the sound, with me following right behind him. I heard him say "what the hell" as 4 men with straight-bladed machetes came into the cockpit and forced Dan back down the steps from the main hatch. As the intruders came down the steps it appeared that they injured Dan with a machete, possibly to his side. At the same time as the men descended one of them flicked off the cabin lights from the main switch-board, as if they were very familiar with boats. Then they used bright flashlights to see where they were going. It appeared that there were two tall and slim Latin men, one medium height Latin man with a solid build, and one small, possibly indigenous man, who tried to hide his face with his shirt.

Dan was forced down the isle, and I moved toward the starboard setee. Dan went to the V berth as one of the intruders came at me and poked me in the left apical region with a machete. My lung instantly collapsed, and I sat down on the starboard setee to hold the wound and focus on breathing. Whenever I took my hand off the wound, air would come out of it with a sputtering sound.

I heard Dan fighting one of the assailants with his curve-bladed machete, which he pulled from under the mattress of the V berth. At the same time the man who attacked me leaned forward into my face and whispered in Spanish "donde estan los dollares" as he held a flashlight in front of his face and mine. I told him in Spanish "no hay dollares solo quetzales, dollares es en el banco." Then I saw a tall man with curly hair (the man who had probably been fighting with Dan) raise his machete over his head and plunge it down in front of him. When the machete was raised I screamed, "no, no, no" and a third person rushed toward me with a pillow to cover my mouth and screams. He held the pillow on my face for a moment, until I stopped screaming.

My attacker then held an ice pick in front of my face and he repeated in Spanish "donde estan los dollares? Quieres morir?" and then he held the ice pick over my head. I closed my eyes and said quietly in English "Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba" my word for God, as I prepared to die, because we did not have dollars on the boat. The ice pick had a chipped red painted square wood handle and pick the size of a screw driver with a pointed end. I then heard two rasping gasps from Dan. My attacker again said in Spanish to me "donde estan los dollares." I tried to stand to go to the chart table where the quetzales were. I could not stand (due to shock and the wound) and the attacker tried to pull me to my feet with my left arm, but my legs were weak. Finally, I stood up and moved toward the chart table. I had to step over Dan's legs to get to the chart table. Dan was in the galley on his stomach, chest raised, arms spread, left arm caught by the sink cabinet and right arm on the refrigerator cabinet. His head was extended backwards and pressing against the oven.

I sat down at the chart table, lifted the top and looked under it for the quetzals. I was surprised to see that they were gone. I then looked into the backpack where Dan's wallet and credit cards usually were and saw that the wallet and credit cards were also gone. I found no money, as it was already taken by the assailants. As I sat at the chart table a tall, muscular man reached over me and tried to pull the chart plotter from the shelf, but it was screwed down to the shelf. It seemed like some signal was given because the men very quickly exited the boat, leaving some of the things they had collected, like my jewelry case which I later saw on the refrigerator. A tall man exited from the pilot berth, and he had our hiking binoculars in his left hand. I heard a big splash and it sounded like one of the men jumped or fell into the water.

I switched on the cabin lights at the main switchboard and picked up the radio receiver and called for help on channel 68. I repeated my location to a responder on the radio. After about three minutes of focused breathing while sitting at the chart table, I heard a boat approaching and slowly climbed the steps to the cockpit. John from Monkey Bay came aboard and went below to help Dan. When John turned him over, Dan's head clunked on the floor. I gasped and John said "I don't think he felt it." I knew Dan was dead. I asked John to hand me my shorts since I was still only wearing underpants and a top and I knew I had to go to the hospital. As John helped me put my shorts on, Frank Jolly arrived. Frank went below and took Dan's pulse, and then returned to me in the cockpit and guided me to his boat. A nurse named Roberta James came on board and told me she would go with me to the hospital and help me. I couldn't easily get into Frank's boat, so he caught me as I fell forward into his boat four feet below. Roberta supported me as I sat in the boat on the way to shore and in the truck on the way to the hospital.

here is an interview with Dan's brother rick LINK

here is a regularly updated and one of the most informative LINKS

suspects will appear in court on Monday LINK

suspect's have been arrested. here is a link to the the story

Incident Details

On Saturday, August 9th, at about 9:30 pm, Jessica and Brian received a telephone message from a woman named Roberta in Guatemala informing them that Nancy was in the hospital. When Jessica called Guatemala she learned that her parents were assaulted by 4 banditos who demanded money. Her mother, Nancy, suffered a chest wound and was in stable condition and her father, Dan, had died from injuries. Roberta told Jessica that she did not previously know Nancy or Dan, but she was a nurse and wanted to personally take care of and comfort Nancy for the first night. Roberta accompanied Nancy to a hospital in Morales.

Later that night Jessica was able to talk to Nancy from the hospital, where Nancy described some of what happened with her usual amount of clarity and energy. As Nancy and Dan were making dinner, anchored away from the marina in the harbor, they heard a knock outside the cockpit. Dan emerged and found four men armed with machetes who had piloted their own dinghy to the sailboat. Both Dan and Nancy were prodded in the chest with the machetes as the assailants demanded US dollars and the access to either the sailboat or dinghy. Conflict ensued after they were dissatisfied with the limited amount of money on board. Nancy was held in a separate compartment as Dan grabbed his own machete and fought to his death. After the four men left the boat Nancy radioed for help and was picked-up by friends she knew from the marina. She was taken to the hospital with a chest wound and a collapsed lung. As of August 10, she remains in good condition, and has been able to have telephone conversations with both Jessica and Daniel with amazing strength and positivity.
above is a picture of the Drydens boat

Jessica, Brian and Daniel are headed to Guatemala City tonight (August 10, 2008) at 10:00 pm, and should be at the hospital by Monday night. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers for Nancy’s recovery, sending Dan’s spirit on, and for the safe travels of Jessica, Brian and Daniel.

here is a link of the ktuu news story

here is a link to a ADN report

here is a link to the frontiersman report