This is the heartbreaking moment the fiancée of a banking billionaire breaks down in grief as she is told he did not survive a freak boating accident while trying to save her from drowning in the Florida Keys.
Bodycam footage exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department shows Andrea Montero breaking down in tears over the loss of her fiancé, Juan Carlos Escotet Alviarez, who was hit by the razor-sharp propellers of his own 60ft fishing boat on March 12.
Escotet Alviarez, 31, had bravely leapt into the water to rescue Montero, 30, after she accidentally fell overboard during a fishing competition six miles off the coast of Key Largo.
But the vessel, named Otoro, had been going in reverse and ran over the Miami-based banker who was on the board of the US division of his father’s Venezuelan bank, Banesco.
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Bodycam footage obtained by DailyMail.com shows the heart-wrenching moment Andrea Montero (pictured) learns her fiancé did not survive a boating accident
Juan Carlos Escotet Alviarez, 31, bravely leapt into the water to rescue Montero, 30, after she fell overboard during a fishing competition six miles off the coast of Key Largo on March 12
Montero, whose hair is still wet, is seen at the exclusive Ocean Reef Club after the accident where she is told that Escotet-Alviarez was killed by the boat’s propellers
The couple, scheduled to wed in November, were participating in a fishing tournament hosted by the Ocean Reef Club, a gated community, when the tragedy occurred
The boat’s 36-inch spinning propellers caused devastating mutilations to his whole body, DailyMail.com can now disclose.
Meanwhile Montero, managed to somehow evade the blades and was hauled to safety by others on the boat, and can recall only basic details of the drama.
She had no idea her fiancé was dead until an officer broke the news back at the harbor at the exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, the footage reveals.
She can be heard wailing at one point: ‘Where did you take him? I want to see his face. Where?’
In a further tragic twist, her fiancé’s body was actually being held on a fishing boat moored at the quayside just a few feet from where she was speaking. That vessel had come to the Otoro’s aid out at sea.
DailyMail.com can also reveal Michael Milz – one of six people on the Otoro – bravely dove into the ocean in a vain bid to save Escotet Alviarez.
But the young banker had already been struck by the propellers by the time Milz had reached him.
In footage from Sergeant Robert Dosh’s camera, Montero, with her hair still wet, first comes into sight along the quay wearing a blue top and shorts.
Dosh, who was coordinating the preliminary investigation, can be heard approaching her with questions as he prepares to deliver the devastating news.
‘Are you the wife? I want you to sit over there,’ he says.
Montero responds: ‘What happened?’
Dosh ushers her to a quieter spot at the yacht club, instructing her to take a seat and adding: ‘I want you sitting down.’
‘I’m going to be OK,’ she says.
Dosh asks her what happened and Montero, clutching two phones, one with an orange case, says between deep breaths: ‘I don’t know.’
DailyMail.com can also reveal Michael Milz – one of six people on the Otoro fishing boat – bravely dove into the ocean in a vain bid to save Escotet Alviarez. He is seen reacting to the news above
Above, Alviarez (center in dark blue shirt) with Montero, 30 (center) and some crew members aboard his fishing vessel
She then proceeds to give the first exclusive account of the tragedy, saying: ‘We had two fish. And I had one and they told me, grab hold on to your rod.
‘I held on and they were backing up so a bunch of water came in and the water took me and I fell out of the boat.
‘And when they got me out, I came out by myself swimming, then they told me he was in the water. And that’s it, that’s all I know.’
Dosh pauses momentarily before saying: ‘Er, okay. Your husband’s passed away.’
Montero, taking a deep breath as she hears the heartbreaking words, puts a hand to her chest and says: ‘It’s my fiancé.’
Then, as the realization of what the sergeant has told her kicks in, she stands up and begins shaking her head and quickly picks up the phone.
‘No, no, no. That’s not true,’ she says, waving Dosh away as her face crumples in anguish and then she sits down again.
‘I know it’s hard,’ Dosh replies, suggesting she stay seated.
Dosh speaking on his phone to a colleague asks: ‘Can I have a female over here?’
Speaking in Spanish that is difficult to hear clearly because Dosh is also having a louder conversation with another official,
As Dosh requests help from another official, Montero can be heard her speaking in Spanish after calling her fiance’s brother, Pedro.
‘Pedro? Pedro the police said to me (something) that we didn’t know,’ she says in a rushed, panicked voice.
Dosh can meanwhile be heard saying to someone: ‘Yeah, she’s going to flip.’
Montero, raising her voice and breaking down in sobs, continues on the phone in indistinct Spanish: ‘That’s what the police said to me. I don’t know anything…’
Montero (left) reportedly doesn’t remember falling off a fishing boat and into the ocean. Officials say she hit her head. Her fiancé was maimed by a razor sharp propeller spanning 36 inches after jumping into rescue her
Alviarez took to Instagram often to show off his catches and his passion for fishing
Alviarez was swept up in the wake of the 60-foot craft’s motor about six miles off the shore of Key Largo, according to the FWC report. Based on the size of the boat, experts claim the propeller was likely as large as 36 inches in diameter
Suddenly she shouts out in grief, making a sound like Haaah!
Then in Spanish she says ‘I don’t know’ before screaming in English: ‘What happened to him? What happened?’ Then in Spanish and English to Dosh: ‘I’m going to put you with him, it’s his brother’.
She hands the officer the phone, adding: ‘but I need to hear’.
There then follows another traumatic conversation.
Montero is still squatting on the concrete as Dosh says into the phone which is on speaker: ‘Hey this is Sergeant Dosh, how are you? Are you his brother?’
You can hear a man say in a deeply pained voice: ‘Yes, I am.’
Dosh asks where he is and the brother says he is on his way to the scene. The officer then says: ‘There has been an accident….
‘Okay, your brother’s passed away.’
The anguished sibling can be heard immediately sobbing: ‘Don’t tell me that, please no, please no’ as his voice trails away into heartbreaking cries.
Montero takes the phone back and says: ‘Sir, sir, I need to speak to somebody. I know..’ before walking away from the officers, including an Ocean Reef Fire and Rescue member.
Dosh, pointing to Montero: ‘Yeah, she’s in shock, she’s in shock.’
The officer believes the grief-stricken fiancée has been taken to an ambulance.
However Montero, still incredulous, is later seen returning to the quayside crying out: ‘I just have a question. Where did you take him? I want to see his face. Where?’
Initial reports said the banking heir was hit on the head. But it is now clear the injuries were far more extensive and sliced his body as well
In fact, Escotet Alviarez’s body had been on a much smaller fishing vessel moored near her which had come to the Otoro’s aid during the tragedy on Saturday, March 12.
Montero and Escotet Alviarez – the son of Spanish-Venezuelan banking tycoon Juan Carlos Escotet, 62 – were due to marry in November.
They regularly competed in sports fishing competitions on the Otoro, posting pictures over social media together on the boat.
The horrific extent of Escotet Alviarez’s injuries are revealed in various conversations involving Sgt Dosh and recorded on his bodycam.
Initial reports said the banking heir was hit on the head. But it is now clear the injuries were far more extensive and sliced his body as well.
Dosh calls someone and says: ‘His wife is on scene. She’s absolutely hysterical.
‘There were six people on the vessel, it was called the Otoro, I guess they are visitors here…
‘Allegedly the boat had caught two fish, they were backing down, the wife fell in the water somehow, they supposedly put it in neutral but the husband jumped in and then got sucked up underneath and then the props took him out. Yeah… he’s got it on both legs, gut, everything.’
Sgt Dosh made another call, explaining the same circumstances and said: ‘He bled out. This guy is abdominal… legs, everything just tucked up.’
In a conversation with the skipper of the fishing boat that came to Otoro’s aid, the description becomes more unsavory.
The captain, whose name is not revealed, discusses drawing a diagram of his involvement for the investigation. Dosh tells him: ‘I don’t think you saw it, right?
‘The diagram is the body in your boat. Yeah, the body was put into your boat. You weren’t that boat that was involved…’
The skipper responds: ‘Yeah, that’s what I would put. Hey, I was on a boat…. You open up the side of the boat…’
But then he adds crudely: ‘Stick figure f***ing hanging there with no legs. Stick figure with no legs.’
And Sgt Dosh responds: ‘Exactly’.
The Otoro was skippered by ultra-experienced Scott Leon, 51, DailyMail.com has previously revealed. It was backing up as that is the usual technique when anglers are fighting game fish, experts have said.
Distraught hero Milz, 34 – also a charter boat skipper from the Miami area – is seen at the beginning of the video sitting on the concrete quay, shaking his head and crying.
Alviarez was a graduate of the University of Miami who had ‘vast experience in real estate development’ in the city, according to his biography on Banesco USA’s website
There is no sound for the first in the footage as he struggles to compose himself, while being comforted by a man holding his shoulders.
The sound comes on and Milz gives Dosh the first account of Escotet Alviarez’s bravery in trying to rescue his fiancée.
He tells the sergeant: ‘We were reversing, we were backing down on a fish… the cockpit fell, went in the water, we had two fish on.
‘The owner and the wife, the wife fell overboard when we were reversing. The owner threw his rod and jumped in the water at the same time we were putting it in gear so we stopped the boat from going into reverse. And he went underneath the boat and got ran over.
Sgt Dosh points along the dock to the boat containing the body of Escotet Alviarez and says: ‘So that was the owner?’ Milz replies: ‘That’s the owner, yes sir.’
The officer asks Milz if he actually saw him under the boat. Milz breaks down even more and sobs: ‘I jumped in the water.
‘And we didn’t know what happened. I just jumped in the water for him. And I got to him I realized it was f***ing bad man.’ Further sobs as he repeats: ‘F***ing bad.’
Dosh: ‘Were the engines in reverse?’
Milz, his head going from side to side as he is crying: ‘When the wife fell over, yes. But when he jumped, he threw his rod in the water and jumped in after her.
‘And when he jumped in after her, I guess the boat went, stopped right there and I don’t know what happened.
‘But after that all I remember is that I jumped in the water for him. That’s all I remember, last thing I can remember.’
Alviarez’s father, Juan Carlos Escotet, is the founder of Venezuelan bank Banesco and is worth a reported $3.5billion
Later in the video – after Montero has been led away a second time after asking the location of her fiancée’s body – Milz can be heard wailing in the background: ‘I tried, I tried.’
Otoro crew member Troy Hall, 26, can also be seen momentarily in the footage, coming up to Milz to try to comfort him.
Hall, who is also a chef in Miami, had dismissed early reports that Montero was accidentally knocked into the water by the Otoro’s skipper in an exclusive DailyMail.com interview days after the horror.
‘Scotty was the captain and he was nowhere near Ms Montero when she went over,’ he said at the time.
‘He was in the cockpit while she was at the stern. Reports saying he knocked her over are plain wrong. I’m not exactly sure how she ended up going overboard.
‘It’s a catastrophe. I really don’t want to say any more.’
Shortly before the interview, he posted on Instagram: ‘Still can’t wrap my head around what happened out there…
‘It’s hard to imagine going from the happiest you can be winning the reef cup, good spirits, good vibes, telling story’s (sic), jamming out, laughing, working hard all day making everything count too.
‘In seconds it all being taken away. Seeing what some of us crew members saw really makes you appreciate life and the loved ones that stick by your side.’
And he added: ‘Life’s to (sic) short and anything can happen at any place and any time. I really appreciate everyone that has reached out to me, the crew we had, and the family, as we are all Devastated by the life taken to soon.’
The sixth person aboard was Leonardo Lombera Jr, 34, who also owns a boat charter company.
Alviarez was linked to several multi-million dollar addresses in the Miami area, including homes in the exclusive suburbs of Coconut Grove and Pinecrest, which is the location given for his home in the accident report by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
His father founded Banesco and is worth a reported $3.5billion, according to Forbes.
The banking heir graduated from the University of Miami and was described on Banesco’s website as having ‘vast experience in real estate development in the Miami area’.
Source by www.dailymail.co.uk
