Search Intensifies for North Carolina Woman Missing in Grenada

Police divers, marine units and volunteer searchers worked the waters off Grenada's Grand Anse Beach again this week, looking for Elizabeth Waddell, a 44-year-old physical therapist from North Carolina who vanished on July 22 after going for a midday swim. Royal Grenada Police Force officers have recovered surveillance footage showing Waddell entering the sea from a pier, and have appealed to fishermen and residents along the island's southern coastline for any information, according to CBS News and Fox News.

Waddell, who friends and family call Liz, was about a week into a three-week Caribbean stay when she disappeared, leaving behind only a towel on the pier. Her husband has traveled to the island to join the search, and the US State Department has confirmed it is aware of reports of an American missing in Grenada.

Timeline of a Disappearance at Grand Anse

Waddell was staying at a rental property in the Grand Anse area on Grenada's southwest coast with a friend, who remained indoors to complete an online course while Waddell went out around noon on Wednesday, July 22, wearing a swimsuit and carrying a towel, according to accounts relayed by family spokesperson Amanda Romano-Harmon and reported by CBS News. She took no phone, identification or shoes.

Hours later, the friend found Waddell's towel on the pier at the beach but no other trace of her. Grand Anse, a two-mile stretch of white sand near the capital St. George's, is the island's most popular beach and is generally regarded as calm for swimmers.

Surveillance video recovered by police shows Waddell at the pier and entering the water. Romano-Harmon told CBS News the footage shows her swimming and floating before the recording loses her, saying "then she floats out of the camera view." Camera footage places her in the water between noon and 1 p.m., according to an account from a close friend reported by Today. That remains the last confirmed sighting.

Police issued a missing person alert the following day, July 23, describing Waddell as 5 feet 5 inches tall with a medium build and short blonde hair; recent photographs circulated by friends also show her with pink hair, Fox News reported. She and her friend had been touring the island for a little over a week before the disappearance, part of a planned three-week trip.

Search Spans Coastline and Open Water

Royal Grenada Police Force officers are leading an effort that has drawn in divers and student volunteers from St. George's University, the American-affiliated medical school located on the peninsula south of Grand Anse, Fox News reported. Authorities have asked boat operators, fishermen and residents along the southern coast to report anything unusual, and have circulated a missing person flyer with contact numbers for the South Saint George police station and the Criminal Investigation Department.

Police have not released the surveillance images publicly and have not characterized the disappearance beyond treating it as a missing person case. No belongings other than the towel have been recovered, and authorities had announced no findings from the water search as of Monday, according to Spectrum News reporting on the continuing operation.

Investigators have not said whether they believe Waddell encountered difficulty in the water, and have declined to speculate on other scenarios while the search continues. Spectrum News reported that the operation was still active on July 27, five days after she was last seen, with officers continuing to canvass the shoreline south of St. George's.

Grand Anse's protected bay is considered among the calmest swimming areas on the island, which has deepened the puzzle for searchers. The beach fronts a busy strip of hotels and guesthouses, and the adjacent peninsula houses St. George's University, whose students have joined shoreline sweeps. Police have asked anyone who was on the beach or on the water around midday on July 22 to come forward, regardless of whether they believe they saw anything significant.

Family Appeals From Two Countries

Cailen Waddell, her husband, flew to Grenada on Friday, July 24, to assist searchers, posting publicly that he expected nothing less than his wife's safe return and asking for continued support. He described her to Fox News as "a loving, free-spirited person" who could befriend anyone. WRAL reported that the family lives in Cary, outside Raleigh, and that word of the disappearance reached town officials there two days after she was last seen.

Friends in North Carolina describe an accomplished clinician and athlete. Waddell holds a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, founded her own practice, Art of Movement Physical Therapy, and teaches fitness classes in the Raleigh area, according to Fox News and WRAL. Romano-Harmon, acting as spokesperson for the family, has coordinated updates with media in the United States while relatives work with authorities on the island.

Communities in Cary and Raleigh have organized prayer gatherings and online appeals, and a network of friends has amplified the police flyer across social media in both countries.

Official Involvement and Open Questions

State Department officials confirmed awareness of the case but declined further comment, citing privacy considerations, Fox News reported. Consular officers routinely assist families of Americans missing in Grenada and elsewhere in the region, helping with document transfers, local liaison and coordination with police, though no US operational role has been announced in this search and neither government has described the case as anything other than an active missing person investigation.

For Grenada, which hosts a growing tourism economy and thousands of American students at St. George's University, the case has drawn international attention to an island with little history of visitor disappearances. Officials have emphasized cooperation with the family and US authorities.

Nearly a week on, the essential questions remain unanswered: whether Waddell was swept from a familiar bay in daylight, and how a swimmer visible on camera could vanish without further trace. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Royal Grenada Police Force at 444-4454, the Criminal Investigation Department at 440-3921, or emergency services at 911.