Man Linked to Missing Couple Held

One month after a Prescott, Ariz., couple vanished from Newport Beach after selling their luxury yacht, police on Friday arrested the 25-year-old man who bought the boat for $400,000 cash.

Authorities also announced that they had recovered the couple’s car in Mexico.

But Thomas C. Hawks, 57, and Jackie E. Hawks, 47, are still missing. And police aren’t saying what led them to arrest Skylar Julius Deleon of Long Beach.

He told police he didn’t know where the couple were, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

“We’re hoping that this brings us closer to finding out what happened to the Hawkses,” he said.

“We can only speculate on what happened to them. We’re not ruling out foul play.”

The couple were reported missing by their families several days after they gave the buyer a test ride aboard their 55-foot boat, “Well Deserved,” on Nov. 15.

The boat was returned to its dock near 15th Street that night, but neither the couple nor their car, a silver 1998 Honda CRV with Arizona license plates, had been seen since.

Police said then that a couple bought the boat and were cooperating with the investigation. They were not suspects, police said at the time.

On Friday night, Shulman wouldn’t comment on the role of a possible second person or whether there was a second buyer.

Officers raided Deleon’s home at 3:35 p.m. and arrested him on suspicion of money laundering. Police would not elaborate.

According to the law, people are guilty of money laundering if they use illegally obtained money to purchase items. Deleon was booked into the Newport Beach jail on $250,000 bail.

Deleon told police he was unemployed, Shulman said.

Police found the Hawkses’ SUV in Ensenada on Thursday. Mexican authorities, Shulman said, were helping with the case.

“The vehicle was in the possession of a Mexican citizen,” Shulman said. “He’s cooperating with the investigation.

The couple had been trying to sell their boat for more than $400,000 to buy a smaller boat and live in San Carlos, Mexico, their son Ryan said.

They sold their Prescott home four years ago to buy the lavish, larger boat and live on it as part of their new lifestyle, which was featured in a cruising magazine a year ago.

Ryan Hawks said at the time that his father, a retired Prescott County probation officer, and Jackie had met a couple in their mid-20s at least once before to negotiate the deal.

The missing couple, who have been married 17 years, traveled extensively but always kept in touch with family members and friends using a satellite e-mail system when they were aboard the boat, Hawks said.

The couple have not used their cellphones, credit cards or bank accounts, police said.