Coast Guard papers deepen mystery of missing Jewish multimillionaire

New documents released by the US Coast Guard have deepened the mystery of missing Florida based Jewish multimillionaire Guma Aguiar, who was last seen on the night of June 19 heading out to sea in his private boat, which washed up empty early the next morning on a Fort Lauderdale beach, engine still running.

The Sun Sentinel reported on Monday that the documents, essentially compiled from reports of the initial investigation, show that Aguiar’s tefillin (ritual phylacteries traditionally strapped to the body during Jewish morning prayers) were found on the abandoned boat, and that all of the boat’s life-jackets were accounted for.

The report said that “security cameras caught him leaving his house with a purpose” and he looked like he was “not in a good frame of mind.”

Commander Darren Caprara of the Miami Coast Guard said that “the only facts we had were GPS coordinates. We saw him on camera, getting on a boat and we knew where it went and where it beached itself without him.”

“We don’t truly know where something went wrong,” added Caprara. “We ask hundreds of questions to try and get any small detail to aid our search. What we are really trying to get to is what he could have done out there.”

Aguiar had reportedly been asked by his wife for a divorce just hours before he took to sea. His watch and wedding ring were found at his house during the investigation, and relatives have indicated that his wealth and marriage were threatened by “massive” lawsuits.

Aguiar had a history of mental instability and was briefly hospitalized in a mental hospital in Israel in 2010. A court document filed by his mother after his disappearance, seeking to gain control of his estimated $100 million fortune, said that at the time of his disappearance he was possibly “mentally deranged.”

Brazilian-born Aguiar, who became wealthy from discovering natural gas reserves in Texas, was a generous donor to Jewish causes, including to Nefesh B’Nefesh and March of the Living. He was also a major sponsor of Beitar Jerusalem, one of Israel’s leading soccer teams, and lived part-time in Jerusalem.

Last week, Aguair’s wife put the couple’s Fort Lauderdale mansion up for sale. The six-year-old British Colonial-style residence can be had for $5.15 million, according to the listing.