Grand Rapids: After suddenly flying from Michigan to Hawaii in 2020, Isaac Danian called his circle of family members to tell them he wouldn’t be available for a month. I didn’t need to say what I was doing or who I was with.
They heard from him again.
Eight months later, the Danes got a call from an army interpreter in Wallis and Futuna, a French island in the South Pacific Ocean. He was investigating the disappearance of two men aboard a sailboat.
France’s National Gendarmerie compiled an investigative report that told an outrageous story about Danian and Guy who fell under the spell of a devoted online leader who encouraged them to leave the United States to escape the COVID-19 vaccine.
Danian, 20, and Shukree Abdul-Rashed, 26, a medical and chemistry student at the University of Rochester in New York, embarked on a two-month adventure sailing from one closed country to another, according to the report.
Without food or water, the men were about to land in Wallis when, in search of a COVID test, they jumped overboard a quarter mile from the coast.
The military, which is in charge of enforcing the law on the island, believes they drowned. Their bodies were never found.
For Danian’s mother, Abigail, the report raised more questions than answers. Some witnesses contradicted each other and the data on the location of the boat on the day of the disappearance was erased by an unknown person.
She said the investigation had not produced enough evidence to convince her that her son had died.
“If you said your child was probably dead, would you settle for that and move on?” he asked.
When Danian and Abdul-Rashed left Hawaii, their plan to live off the grid, she said. What if they achieve their goal?
Danian, who struggled with depression in his youth, went from an obsession to astrology, numerology, lucid dreaming, his parents said. With the arrival of COVID in 2020, their fashions have taken a dark turn.
He followed his circle of relatives into space, saying the government would soon go door-to-door to force others to get vaccinated. He begged them to sell the space and move to a bunker where no one could locate them.
He thought the pandemic was a sign that the apocalypse was approaching, his parents said. Before leaving for Hawaii, he left a note for his younger brothers.
“Don’t get vaccinated!!!” He wrote, “Or possibly you wouldn’t pass into heaven. “
His parents didn’t know it, but Isaac was watching videos of Matthew Mellow.
Mellow, 29, who legally replaced his call from Matthew Logue, moved from California to Hawaii in 2017, he told investigators. Although he was a mechanic, he became disabled after injuring his knee. Mellow loves to surf, acquaintances said.
In the videos, Mellow with dreadlocks has a tattoo on his forehead that reads “Yahweh” in archaic Hebrew. There is a mixture of Old Testament and end-time rhetoric peppered with references to the Illuminati, Area 51, “The Matrix” and the Zionists. .
Mellow said COVID is Bible prophecy and Satan’s plot to conquer the world. Governments controlled by 33rd degree Freemasons used vaccines and tests to implant PC chips in people, whose movements would then be controlled through 5G networks, he said.
“He (Satan) loves sin, he you to sin, he you to be a Christian, he you to be an atheist. Find? It’s not complicated,” Mellow wrote on his website.
On September 5, 2020, two days before Danian flew to Hawaii, Mellow posted a message on Facebook saying that he and Abdul-Rashed were about to leave the country and were looking for another boy to sign up for them. Abdul-Rashed had flown to Hawaii several weeks earlier.
Mellow didn’t say where they were going, only that it would be a COVID-free position and “riots and camps and all that crazy stuff,” which are imminent. He called it a survival mission.
In a dimly lit video with Abdul-Rashed, Mellow came under pressure to find a man who had no family ties, who would not abandon anyone. Abdul-Rashed, who had left his young wife in Rochester, sat down expressionlessly.
“We’re not coming back,” Mellow said in the video. I have a smart plan. The type of user I’m for is someone who is sane, notoriously sane. “
The paradise island that would offer a safe haven from the coming inferno was the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, according to the Gendarmerie report. Mellow had friends there on surf tours over the past decade.
He hired Jeff McKinley, a sailboat owner, to send the organization across the ocean because airlines required COVID testing.
While in Hawaii, Mellow showed Abdul-Rashed how to ride on a bodyboard with fins and a backpack, McKinley told the military. Abdul-Rashed didn’t have a passport, so Mellow’s plan to drop him off near shore and take him to the boogieboard, McKinley said.
Mellow denied it. He told investigators Abdul-Rashed was a weak swimmer, so he spent 25 days teaching him to swim.
Mellow’s mother, Petra Logue, who does not share his ideals but was looking to be with her son, also made the trip, according to the report.
Mellow also brought his entire library, which he packed into two suitcases and a giant cooler. In a video, he said he recently bought 158 books on the Hebrew Bible.
“What I’m doing is escaping,” he said. The purpose is to be in a safe, or at least safer, position and have time to read books and prepare physically. “
McKinley’s sailboat, A-Loona, was overloaded, so he asked an acquaintance to take Danian and Abdul-Rashed. McKinley and the other captain, Mike Schmidt, set sail in early October 2020 for what they expected to be a five-week trip.
The 3,000-mile adventure aboard Zulu Time was enjoyable, according to Force’s report. The three men fished, grilled and enjoyed the good weather.
Schmidt, 60, a part-time charter boat captain, filmed a video of Danian and Abdul-Rashed posing with a five-foot yellowfin tuna. Momentary video showed Danian piloting the 39-foot boat. along the boat. The two men were smiling.
“They had a while,” Schmidt said. “We caught a lot of fish.
Danian with wide eyes while Abdul-Rashed darker, he said. The couple spent most of their time reading the Bible and talking about faith and the pandemic.
Shortly after leaving Hawaii, they learned that the Cook Islands had closed its border due to the growing risk of COVID. They then headed to French Polynesia, 700 miles to the east.
McKinley’s ship arrived in the French islands on Nov. 12, but Schmidt encountered a gust, he said. It struggled with high winds and waves for days, but it’s possible it pre-empted the storm. One night, the sea lifted the boat and capsized it. , causing the captain to break his nose with the rudder.
After six days, Schmidt surrendered, changed direction, and sailed west into American Samoa.
When U. S. officials said they couldn’t land without taking a COVID test, Danian and Abdul-Rashed asked Schmidt to drop them off on an islet or let them use his canoe. When he refused, they threatened to jump overboard.
The captain set his sights at Wallis, 500 miles to the west.
“The government sought to do COVID testing and it wasn’t necessary,” Schmidt said. “They went crazy, absolutely crazy. “
COVID control or not, Wallis will be Zulu Time’s final destination. The team hadn’t noticed land for 54 days. The engine was broken. They rationed the last seven gallons of water.
On November 27, 2020, the ship anchored outdoors in a creek in Wallis when a gendarmerie officer greeted them with bad news: a COVID check would be mandatory. Danian asked if they could just get a saliva check instead of a nasal swab, but I still didn’t get an answer.
When the shipment was ready to enter the creek the next morning, a nervous Abdul-Rashed asked if they could wait a little longer, Schmidt said. A distracted Danian began to tie ropes around a winch.
“They weren’t thinking about what was going on on the ship,” he said. “They were thinking about anything else. “
As the ship sailed down a narrow channel, Abdul-Rashed in the cockpit, shouting coordinates. He suddenly fell silent when Danian joined him under the bridge.
Abdul-Rashed fled the cockpit and jumped overboard, Schmidt said. Ten seconds later, Danian did the same: “I’m sorry. “
The boat had just entered the cove and a quarter of a mile from land, according to the gendarmerie report. The existing ones passed quickly.
When Abdul-Rashed jumped out, he was holding a small bag but Danian with bare hands, Schmidt said. Later, the captain discovered a similar-looking bag on the boat containing lighters and bandages.
Danian also left his passport and wallet, which contained his credit cards, seven dollars and a handwritten note, according to the report.
The letter written by his 8-year-old sister, Amelia, when she had been in trouble in Michigan a year earlier. It contained a drawing of his circle of relatives and 3 pets.
“I just need you to know that your circle of family loves you and that we miss you and that we are not angry with you,” she wrote. “Henry misses you, mom misses you, dad misses you, Sam misses you, Mimi. I miss you, Ash, and I miss you. “
During the investigation, a witness told the gendarmerie that he saw Zulu Time approaching Wallis from the north, and not from the south as Schmidt had claimed. the army said.
Schmidt said the witness was and did not know who deleted the data. Other witnesses said they saw 3 other people aboard the boat when it entered the creek, but saw no one go overboard.
The gendarmerie asked Schmidt why he had thrown the men a life jacket or other flotation device. Officials also asked about the six-minute delay in reporting the emergency.
The men jumped in just after Schmidt texted at 12:11 p. m. M. , saying he had entered the creek and was preparing to drop anchor, he said. But Schmidt didn’t send an email reporting the incident until 12:17 p. m. m.
He told investigators he first tried to use the radio, but the cable was cut. He said he was thinking of stopping the ship but had to use GPS to locate a position where he could drop anchor.
Schmidt told the Detroit News that Danian and Abdul-Rashed were going to flee and would have resisted any attempt to arrest them.
“I talked to them until I turned blue. I told them wrong (Mellow’s plan),” he said. “You can’t knock a jumper off the roof when he’s already jumped. “
After a four-month investigation, the gendarmerie said it believed the men had jumped overboard and been swept away by the strong current. Schmidt said Danian was a smart swimmer but he would possibly have been embarrassed to seek to help Abdul-Rashed.
Danian’s parents didn’t know about this — the journey, the disappearance, the investigation — until May 2021. That’s when they won the gendarmerie phone call.
The army discovered them through a Facebook page that the circle of relatives had created to locate their son. Until the call, the parents had focused their efforts on Hawaii.
The Danes were disappointed by the investigation. They don’t understand why the military didn’t further investigate GPS knowledge to find out who deleted it and why.
And the circle of relatives still does not perceive why Schmidt did not do more to save the men’s escape attempt.
“It doesn’t seem like I’ve done much to them,” said Isaac’s father, John Danian. “It didn’t stop,” his horn sounded. If you look at it, there are a lot of moves a captain can do.
The parents obtained a letter in January saying the investigation had been proven through the Walloon justice formula and would be officially closed. They temporarily hired a French lawyer to appeal the decision.
Abigail said the lack of evidence makes it difficult to settle for the gendarmerie’s findings. Again, he asked: If someone told you that your child probably died, would you settle for that?Would that be enough?
So she continues to celebrate Isaac’s birthdays. She saves him a piece of cake and sends him messages on Facebook. For her, Isaac is now 22, not 20.
“I know love will take you home,” she wrote in 2021.
Schmidt, who returned home to California, said the gendarmerie report told part of the story. He intends to count the rest.
In November, his YouTube channel featured a series of videos about the experiment that has 3 servings and promises more. However, so far he has not revealed anything new.
Schmidt said he’s also writing an e-book about it. The current title: “2 Missing 7 Dead / A True Story of a 10,000 mile Journey”.
When asked about the seven dead, he said they were two more ships connected to Russian pirates. He refused to give main points unless The News paid for him.
“It’s deepening,” he said Schmidt. Es the story may not end until those two meet, and at this point, it may not end yet. “
As for Mellow, he is still in French Polynesia, taking care of what he calls his ministry. He rides the island by motorcycle and hands out anti-vaccine flyers in parks and churches, Mellow wrote on his website.
He told The News in a brief interview that he admired Danian and Abdul-Rashed declined to say why.
“Amazing young people, both of them,” Mellow said. Isaac is a hero in the eyes of the Most High. “
He had told the gendarmerie that he felt the two men were his brothers because, like him, they would die rather than undergo a COVID test. He also said he didn’t know their last names.
Mellow is still looking for followers. From Hawaii, he has posted 1257 videos on his BitChute page, which has 520 followers, according to the page.
In October, he asked his followers to help a Chicago man who needed to sell $7500 worth of non-perishable food he had stored. The man was about to move in. He on his way to French Polynesia.
fdonnelly@detroitnews. com