North Carolina mom missing after swim off Grenada beach

Elizabeth “Liz” Waddell, 44, disappeared after going down to the water near Grand Anse Beach in St. George’s, Grenada, forcing her family in Cary, North Carolina, to work through the Royal Grenada Police Force as they searched for answers. Police issued a missing person poster, and her husband, Cailen Waddell, traveled to the Caribbean island to help look for her.

The Royal Grenada Police Force said Waddell was last seen around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, near Grand Anse Beach. Family members said she had gone to swim, and they later made an urgent plea for help as word of the disappearance spread across Grenada and North Carolina.

Cailen Waddell works as an operations manager for the Cary Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources, and the Raleigh News & Observer identified Elizabeth Waddell as his wife. ABC11 described her as about 5 feet tall, based on her husband’s description. Family and friends have continued to describe her as an “amazing person” while asking anyone with information to come forward.

Grand Anse Beach is one of Grenada’s best-known tourist areas, on an island often called the Isle of Spice, which makes the case especially visible in a place that draws international visitors. The U.S. Department of State maintains a Grenada travel advisory that tells Americans to exercise increased caution, a reminder that when a U.S. citizen disappears abroad, the search depends first on foreign police and local witnesses rather than a single American investigative system.

Waddell’s disappearance has drawn attention well beyond St. George’s because it sits at the intersection of family fear, local policing and the limits of consular help. Her whereabouts remained unknown as the search continued around Grand Anse Beach, where the case began with a swim and quickly became a cross-border effort involving a North Carolina family and Grenadian authorities.