Canadian Man Dead, Daughter Safe In Central America: Family
Posted December 4, 2010 2:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Canadian woman is safe after her father was killed on his boat off the coast of Honduras, reportedly by a group of assailants, a family member said Saturday.
Myda Egrmajer, 24, somehow escaped and was rescued and taken to neighbouring Belize, her uncle Kelly Wilson told The Canadian Press in an interview from his home in Mahone Bay, N.S.
“She was picked up by I think a private yacht.”
The family was told her father, Milan Egrmajer, 55, was killed, Wilson said.
The girl, originally from Ottawa, was visiting her father who has been living off his boat for the past couple of years, Wilson said.
They had apparently decided to anchor off the mouth of a river to ride out bad weather, Wilson said.
Honduras Department of Security spokesman Leonel Sauceda said the girl contacted authorities by radio to tell them that she and her father were accosted by the gunmen on Friday.
Sauceda said the girl indicated her father was dead. But because she doesn’t speak Spanish, authorities were finding it difficult to determine if she was hurt or what the motive for the attack was.
The Honduran newspaper La Prensa reported on its website Friday that the attack occurred while the pair were camping near the northern port town of Tela.
The paper quoted Abelino Gomez, head of the Tela police investigative team, as saying the tourists “appeared to be pursued by a speed boat, probably with the intent to rob them, and when Mr. Milan Egrmajer fought back, they shot him.”
Preliminary reports suggest the man’s daughter called Canadian authorities after the attack — as well as officials in Honduras — to ask for help but they were unable to reach them because of the weather.
The family still isn’t exactly clear how his niece managed to survive, Wilson said.
“We don’t know how it happened.”
Earlier media reports from Central America had said the girl was a teenager and the man’s granddaughter.
Foreign Affairs has confirmed an incident involving the two Canadians in Honduras, but would not elaborate.
