Elizabeth Waddell’s family said Friday, July 31, that it would head home from Grenada while the search for the 44-year-old North Carolina woman continued. Cailen Waddell said the family had done what it could on the island and that the case would remain active.
The timing matters because the family’s departure does not close the search. Waddell vanished while vacationing in Grenada, and the case has now entered a new phase: the people closest to her are leaving, but investigators are still working the missing-person file. In a statement posted to FindLiz.com, Cailen Waddell said the family had done what it could in Grenada, and on Wednesday he said he did not believe foul play was involved in his wife’s disappearance.
That view was not shared as a final finding by police. After consultation with family, local authorities, the U.S. Embassy and others in Grenada, Waddell said he had joined authorities in believing there was no foul play, but Royal Grenada Police Force Commissioner Randy Connaught said on July 28 that the force had not reached or announced any final conclusion about the circumstances of her missing-person status. He said the matter continued to be treated as a missing person investigation.
The public record already shows why the case remains unsettled. Elizabeth Waddell was last seen on surveillance video around noon on July 22 swimming off Grand Anse Beach in St. George's. Investigators said she entered the water at 11:51 a.m. and was seen swimming below the jetty at 12:04 p.m. She was not seen on surveillance footage returning from the water. A friend reported her missing to local police at 5:50 p.m. that day, and police later searched the shoreline, the Airbnb and the surrounding area.
There is still a gap that no statement has filled: what happened between that last sighting and the report filed hours later, and what became of her after she was seen in the water. Police issued a missing persons alert on July 23, and the investigation remains open. For now, the family has gone home, but the unanswered question that matters most is still the same one that started the search: where Elizabeth Waddell is.
