“I’M OKAY” —THE LAST PEOPLE TO SEE HER: Jet-Skiers Reveal Elizabeth Waddell’s Final Moments Before She Disappeared Before Elizabeth Waddell vanished in the water, the missing North Carolina mom reportedly had a brief interaction with nearby jet-skiers — and her husband is now sharing what she said during that final encounter. As the search continues, those last moments are becoming a crucial piece of the timeline. Full story in the comments👇
More than two weeks after 44-year-old Elizabeth “Liz” Waddell entered the waters off Grand Anse Beach in Grenada and failed to return, her husband has shared new details about what may have been her final interaction with other people. According to Cailen Waddell, a pair of jet-skiers later reported speaking with a woman matching his wife’s description far from shore on the afternoon of July 22, 2026. When they offered to take her back to land, she reportedly told them, “I’m a good swimmer,” and gave a thumbs-up. The account has added another layer to a case that remains officially classified as a missing-person investigation, with no confirmed recovery and lingering questions about how a routine swim ended in disappearance.
Elizabeth Waddell, a physical therapist from Cary, North Carolina, traveled to the Caribbean island of Grenada with a close female friend. They arrived on July 11 after a flight from Miami. For the first ten days the pair stayed at a resort on the western side of the island. On July 21 they relocated, as previously planned, to an Airbnb in the Grand Anse area of St. George’s, a popular stretch of white-sand beach known for its calm, turquoise water. The following day, July 22, would become the last day anyone is known to have seen her on land.
Surveillance cameras at the rental property captured key moments that morning. Footage reviewed by Grenadian authorities and later shared in part by the family shows Waddell walking toward the beach and jetty area around 11:36 to 11:45 a.m. She sat on the sand near the jetty, then moved onto the structure, removed her towel while still in her swimwear, and entered the water at approximately 11:51 a.m. Roughly thirteen minutes later, around 12:04 p.m., she was visible swimming beneath or near the jetty before moving out of the camera’s frame. Authorities have stated that no surveillance footage shows her returning to shore.
Waddell’s friend, who had remained inside the Airbnb to complete an online course, later went to look for her. She found only Waddell’s towel near the pier. At 5:50 p.m. that afternoon the friend reported her missing at the South St. George police station. The Royal Grenada Police Force launched an immediate response, appealing specifically to fishermen, boat operators, and residents along the southern coastline for any information or sightings. Search efforts expanded to include police divers, Coast Guard assets, aerial surveys, shoreline sweeps, and assistance from local volunteers and students from St. George’s University.
In the days that followed, Cailen Waddell traveled from North Carolina to Grenada to assist with the search. He established a website, findliz.com, to share updates and coordinate information. Early statements from both the family and police emphasized that the case was being treated as a missing-person investigation. Acting Commissioner of Police Randy Connaught publicly stated that authorities had reached no final conclusion and continued to hope Waddell would be found safe. He also noted that the travel companion had cooperated fully and that nothing in her account appeared questionable.
A significant development emerged when two jet-skiers came forward. According to Cailen Waddell’s later update on the family website, the pair reported encountering a woman they believed to be Liz around 5:30 p.m. on July 22—more than four hours after she was last captured on camera near the jetty. They described her swimming or treading water a considerable distance from shore. Based on charts the husband reviewed, the location was roughly in water about 17 feet deep, approximately one-third of a mile from shore and a similar distance northeast of Quarantine Point in Grand Anse Bay.
The jet-skiers said they spoke with the woman for five to ten minutes. They tried to persuade her to accept a ride back to shore on one of their jet skis rather than remaining in the open water. According to their account, she replied, “I’m a good swimmer,” and gave them a thumbs-up. Cailen Waddell has written that the overall description of the woman was consistent with his wife, though he has caveated that he had never previously heard Liz describe her own swimming ability as “good.” The witnesses later met with the family and returned by boat to the area to point out the approximate location of the encounter.
This reported interaction has become a focal point of the husband’s public reflections. In updates shared in early August, Cailen Waddell stated that making such a long swim appeared “completely out of character” for his wife and seemed far beyond his understanding of her swimming abilities. He noted that she had taken some swim lessons as an adult but was most comfortable in the water with a flotation device. She had packed four such devices in her suitcase for the Grenada trip and had used at least two earlier in the vacation. It is not known whether she had one with her on July 22. He has described the waters near Grand Anse as relatively calm and “lake-like” closer to shore, yet the reported distance of the later sighting raised questions for him about how she reached that point and why she declined assistance.
Despite these unresolved details, Cailen Waddell has repeatedly stated that he joins local authorities in believing there was no foul play. In a July 29 update he wrote that after consultation with family, Grenadian police, the U.S. Embassy, and others, he accepted the working assessment that foul play was not indicated. He identified the period between the midday camera footage and the reported 5:30 p.m. sighting as particularly important to clarify, along with any further possible observations. By early August he had refined his view further, writing that while absolute certainty remained elusive, drowning appeared to be the most likely scenario based on the information available. He has described the situation as feeling incomplete, comparing it to a jigsaw puzzle in which the border is finished but the middle remains disordered.
Search operations have been extensive. Divers examined underwater areas, teams checked shorelines and nearby wooded sections, and authorities reviewed available security footage from hotels along the beach. Investigators also examined Waddell’s personal effects, including journal entries, emails, text messages, WhatsApp communications, and digital search history, according to reporting on the case. Her phone and some personal items were recovered, though not her shoes or wallet, according to various accounts. No evidence pointing to third-party involvement has been publicly announced.
Elizabeth Waddell was described in missing-person alerts as approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall with short blonde hair; some earlier photos circulated by the family showed her with pink hair. She worked as a physical therapist and was the founder of Art of Movement Physical Therapy. She held a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Friends and family have remembered her as someone who valued intuition about people and was willing to help others. Cailen Waddell has shared more personal reflections, noting that the couple met in 2003 at the American Dance Festival in Durham and had been together ever since—longer, he realized, than they had been apart. He has written that they balanced each other and formed a strong partnership, while acknowledging he was not yet ready to fully articulate everything she meant to him.
The family has expressed gratitude for the compassionate response from Grenadian authorities and the many local residents who assisted in the search. A GoFundMe campaign was established to help cover ongoing search-related expenses. As some relatives began returning to the United States, Cailen Waddell indicated that the formal investigation would continue on the island while the family processed events from home. He has maintained daily routines of journaling, meditation, exercise, and communication with authorities in Grenada.
As of the most recent public updates in early August 2026, Elizabeth Waddell has not been located. The Royal Grenada Police Force continues to classify the matter as a missing-person case. No official determination of the cause of her disappearance has been released. The reported exchange with the jet-skiers—particularly the words “I’m a good swimmer” and the accompanying thumbs-up—stands as the last known verbal communication attributed to her. Whether that encounter involved Waddell, and what occurred in the water afterward, remain among the central unanswered questions.
The case has drawn attention both in North Carolina, where Waddell lived and worked, and internationally because of the tropical setting and the clear surveillance record of her entering the water. Her husband’s willingness to share detailed, sometimes contradictory-feeling observations has provided the public with a window into the family’s perspective: a belief that foul play is unlikely, an acknowledgment that drowning is the most probable explanation, and a persistent sense that certain elements do not fully align with the woman he knew for more than two decades.
Anyone with additional information has been asked to contact the Royal Grenada Police Force. For the Waddell family, the passage of time has not brought resolution. The images of Liz walking toward the jetty, entering the Caribbean Sea on a clear July morning, and the later account of a woman in open water declining a ride back to shore continue to define the known boundaries of the mystery. Between those points lies the still-unanswered question of what happened to Elizabeth Waddell.
