American man murdered on his boat on lake in Guatemala

(See further information below. The AP left out of their account the fact that the victim had a firearm and attempted to defend himself.)

Yet another white couple, apparently unarmed, with no self-defense measures of any kind in place, naively deliver themselves into the hands of violent desperadoes in a nonwhite country. This is from the AP:

GUATEMALA CITY—Robbers armed with machetes hacked a U.S. tourist to death and seriously wounded his wife in an attack aboard the couple’s sailboat in northeastern Guatemala, the woman told The Associated Press on Sunday.

In a telephone interview from her hospital bed, Nancy Dryden, 67, said her husband, Daniel Perry Dryden, 66, was killed by four men who boarded their boat late Saturday while it was anchored in Lake Izabal.

“They poked us and stabbed us with the machetes, and they were asking for money, specifically dollars,” said Dryden, who was listed in stable condition at a hospital in the lakeside town of Morales.

The thieves were apparently unhappy with the take. “We had a few quetzales (Guatemala’s currency), but we had no dollars with us on the boat,” Dryden recounted.

The Drydens, who are retired and live near Anchorage, Alaska, had bought the boat in February. They were equipping the vessel in preparation for a voyage into the Caribbean and eventually to the eastern coast of the United States.

Dryden said the four assailants may have reached the boat by swimming from shore and brandished long machetes that “seemed liked curved swords.”

After assaulting the couple, the men demanded she hand over the keys to the vessel, which has an auxiliary motor. When she didn’t _ she was unable to tell whether they wanted the keys to the boat, or a small dinghy the couple used to get to shore _ the men left, also apparently by swimming.

Dryden struggled over to the boat’s radio and sent out a distress call. “I said we need help … I said my husband was not moving,” Dryden recalled.

She said she expects her children to arrive in Guatemala Monday and plans to be transferred to the United States for medical care.

Assistant Police Commissioner Luis Say said the attack is being investigated.

Located near Guatemala’s Caribbean coast, Lake Izabal is popular among tourists for its jungle scenery and wildlife.

In March, protesting farmers briefly kidnapped four Belgian tourists at Lake Izabal to press for the release of a jailed activist. They were released unharmed.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

On a side point, notice how the story doesn’t actually say how Daniel Dryden was killed. It describes what sounds like preliminary “poking and stabbing” of the couple, followed by the Drydens’ giving the robbers some money, followed by the robbers “not being happy.” You’d expect the fatal violence to be described at that point. But it’s not. Was it then the “poking and stabbing” that killed Mr. Dryden? If so, why does the headline and lead sentence say he was “hacked to death”? To me, the phrase “hacked to death” means repeated swinging or chopping motions, even the chopping of a person to pieces, not poking and stabbing. The people who write and edit the news today don’t care about these distinctions, or about supplying a narrative account of a crime that makes sense.

Van Wijk, who sent the piece, writes:

Interesting note: “Dryden said the four assailants may have reached the boat by swimming from shore and brandished long machetes that ‘seemed liked curved swords.’”

Sounds like a scimitar.

UPDATE: Scottie Kania from Wasilla, Alaska tells me the Drydens are a relatively prominent couple in the Anchorage area (just as Todd Bachman, recently murdered in Beijing by a Chinese man, was a well-known business owner in St. Paul), and that “our local broadcast news said Mr. Dryden tried to grab a handgun he had onboard the vessel, but the attackers started hacking away before he could get to it.”

So I was right. There was more to the story that the AP left out. The PC bastards at the AP not only didn’t tell us how Daniel Dryden was killed, they wouldn’t even tell us that he had a firearm and tried to defend himself.

Also, the Anchorage Daily News, while following the AP account on the crime, gives further information on the Drydens:

In Alaska, family friend Dee Woods said the Drydens were experienced sailors. They owned a boat in the 1960s and ’70s and sailed to England and in the Pacific Ocean.

“They were real trusting and loving and outright, but they were aware that stuff happens. This is just a freak thing,” Woods said. The couple’s two grown children, a son and a daughter, live in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Woods said the daughter had called Sunday morning with the news and asked that friends be notified.

Woods said the couple had planned to build a home in Mexico but while visiting friends in Guatemala, they found the sailboat for sale and bought it.

Woods said recent emails between he and his wife, Mat-Su Borough Assemblywoman Lynne Woods, and Nancy Dryden indicate the couple was waiting out bad weather before embarking on their journey.

“Nancy and Dan were really having a good time,” Woods said. “They were really getting into the arts and crafts of Guatemala.

Woods said the Drydens moved to Sutton in the late 1970s, where both couples were members of a small community of friends who spent holidays and birthdays together. Dan drove truck during the pipeline days and went on to work as a private contractor around the area. Recently, he did dirt work on a salmon habitat restoration program on Moose Creek near Sutton.

Nancy recently retired from the state where she worked as a physical therapist.

In Guatemala City, Assistant Police Commissioner Luis Say said the attack is being investigated.

Located near Guatemala’s Caribbean coast, Lake Izabal is popular among tourists for its jungle scenery and wildlife.

In March, protesting farmers briefly kidnapped four Belgian tourists at Lake Izabal to press for the release of a jailed activist. They were released unharmed.

James P. writes (August 12):

You wrote:

So I was right. There was more to the story that the AP left out. The PC bastards at the AP not only didn’t tell us how Daniel Dryden was killed, they wouldn’t even tell us that he had a firearm and tried to defend himself.

I would have expected the PC bastards to trumpet the fact that the victims couldn’t save themselves, even with a handgun. The PC line on guns is “they can’t save you—you’ll probably miss, or the attacker will take them away and use them against you.” Helpless passivity is the only rational and morally proper approach when your home, or boat, is invaded. Only violent macho idiots want to take responsibility for their own defense, right?

Frankly, the Drydens sound appallingly naive and careless. If I were on a boat cruising in Third World waters, which I wouldn’t do in the first place, I would have a handgun on my person at all times. I wouldn’t have to go looking for it when the bad guys climbed aboard, and shotguns and assault rifles would be readily accessible. If you trust your life to corrupt, incompetent Third World cops, who couldn’t arrive in time to help you even if they wanted to, you are nothing less than a fool.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 11, 2008 04:45 PM | Send