Russians found dead aboard yacht in Panama

Two Russian amateur yachtsmen died on Wednesday from an unknown cause aboard their ship at light anchorage in the Pacific, close to the entrance of the Panama Canal, reports ITAR-TASS news agency.

Police have started an investigation into the deaths of Stanislav Dubrovsky, from the Russian city of Novokuznetsk, and his fellow traveler Elena Chervova.

The Russian Consul in Panama, Georgy Polin, assured that Russian diplomats are fully informed of the situation, and the Russian consulate is closely co-operating with the local authorities.

Police have already rejected the cause of death as violence, and neither drugs nor other powerful substances were found aboard, so the deaths probably resulted in intoxication of an unknown nature. Autopsies have already been planned in order to reveal the real cause of the deaths.

The Consul said Russians were on a trans-Atlantic journey and arrived in Panama on April 27.

The name of the yacht is Adwaita, and it was bought in Montenegro last year. The yachtsmen traveled through the Mediterranean, and then sailed across the Atlantic, visiting Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil before passing through the Panama Canal to the Pacific.

The anchorage neighbors of the Adwaita informed the police that the Russians had practiced an Indian philosophical system, and meditated a lot.

The Adwaita’s owner used to be known in Russia as the founder and first director (1998-2001) of the Russian branch of the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC).

A peculiar detail about the Russian couple was that they demanded to be named in an unusual way: Stanislav became ‘Lokki’ and Elena responded to ‘Tara’.

On Wednesday, Elena reportedly called a Russian yachtsman who settled down in Panama some time ago and told him her companion was dead. The man rushed to the Adwaita only to find the corpse of its captain.

Elena asked him to take her to shore on his tender, but on the way she fell ill and passed away before the ambulance arrived.