Bill and Linda Bishop were unhappy when their twenty-three-year-old daughter, Lisa, informed him she would not be home for Christmas. She excitedly told them she had been asked to go on the trip of a lifetime, but her parents were concerned after hearing the details. Lisa planned to travel by ship to Haiti with a German drifter and a group of seven other foreigners. Equally as upset as Lisa’s parents was her boyfriend, Paul Cornwell. The thought of his girlfriend sailing across the ocean with a group of men from another country was unsettling. All hated the idea of Lisa sailing to Haiti, but she was determined to spend Christmas in the Caribbean.

On December 17, 1988, Lisa, against her parents’ and boyfriend’s wishes, was among a crew of nine people who departed Miami for Haiti aboard the freighter Freedon.  Thirty-five-years later, the fate of the Freedon and its crew members remains unknown.

Lisa Bishop

A senior majoring in journalism at Georgia State University, Lisa Bishop lived in Riverdale, part of metropolitan Atlanta, and worked as the bar manager at the Metroplex, a music nightclub owned by her boyfriend, Paul Cornwell.

Lisa and Paul

Florian Meyer-Bourch, a twenty-eight-year-old German national entrenched in the European expatriate community, resided in Miami but made frequent trips to Atlanta. His interest in Caribbean reggae bands often brought him to The Metroplex, where such bands regularly performed.

Meyer-Bourch, who also went by the names Florian Meyer-Borchert and David Florian, worked some as a mechanic but was described as a modern day Gypsy who lived primarily by sponging off others. He had sailed throughout the Caribbean and had plans of going to Haiti for the holiday season. After meeting Lisa and learning of her journalistic ambitions, he invited her to accompany him and his crew.

Florian Meyer-Bourch

Lisa had been to Jamaica several times and longed to visit more of the Caribbean. She felt the timing of Florian’s offer was fortuitous as she was planning to write an article about the World Bank and the economic contrasts between the wealth of America and poverty-ridden Haiti.  Lisa believed the opportunity to travel to the country, although it meant spending Christmas away from her home and family, was too good to pass up.

Bill and Linda Bishop, as well as Paul Cornwell, were suspicious of Florian’s motives. Lisa assured them nothing romantic would occur and that she would stay focused on her schoolwork. Despite their repeated pleas to stay home, Lisa was determined to travel to Haiti.

Haiti, Here I Come

Lisa Bishop, Florian Meyer-Bourch, and seven Haitian crew members were to sail to Haiti aboard the Freedon, an eighty-two-foot diesel-powered tramp freighter. The derelict cargo ship of Bohemian registry was to leave Miami on the morning of December 17, 1988, but bad weather delayed the departure.

Meyer-Bourch called associates and told them he was considering cancelling the trip but that Lisa was pleading with him not to do so. Lisa called her parents and told them of the delay as well. They asked her one more time to change her mind but were again unable to persuade her.

By afternoon, the weather had warmed and the waters had calmed. The Freedon departed Miami at 2:30 p.m.

The Freedon

Lisa told her parents she probably would not call for a few days but assured them she would contact them on Christmas Day. When the holiday came and went with no word from her, they contacted the Coast Guard, which had not received a distress call from any ship in the week since the Freedon had set sail.

No Call on Christmas

The Freedon crew planned to travel six-hundred miles past the Cuban coast to Gonaieve, a small provincial port on the west coast of Haiti.

The Coast Guard notified all Haitian ports and those throughout the Caribbean to be on the lookout for the Freedon. Several search and rescue Falcon jet aircraft were dispatched to the old Bahamas Channel, the area between the United States and Haiti, but all failed to find any clues to freighter’s fate.  Cuban border guards also came up empty in their search for the Freedon.

No Trace of the Freedon

In April 1989, four months after the Freedon disappeared, underwater salvager Bob Nyberg read an article about the missing freighter in the Miami New Times. He believes he had seen the ship shortly after the New Year in a different part of the Caribbean, approximately two weeks after it had disappeared.

The vessel, Nyberg remembered, was at the harbor throughout the day, but he could not recall what specific day. By the following morning, it had departed.

Bob Nyberg

Nyberg is certain he saw the Freedon entering Georgetown Harbor on Grand Cayman Island, over five-hundred miles west of Haiti, sometime in January 1989. He is positive it was the missing ship because he recalled the lettering on the boat; at first glance, he thought it said “Freedom” before realizing it read Freedon.

The Freedon Is Way Off Course

Paul Cornwell and Bob Nyberg visited Grand Cayman in May 1989, hoping to find clues to the Freedon and its missing crew members.

Several residents recalled seeing the ship and believed they saw Florian Meyer-Bourch in the port shortly after the New Year. Many said he was accompanied by another man with short black hair.

Sightings of Florian . . .

No one on Grand Cayman, however, could remember having seen Lisa Bishop.

. . . But Not Of Lisa

After returning to Atlanta, Paul visited a former girlfriend of Florian Meyer-Bourch who was storing many of his belongings. Paul found a picture of a man seen with the missing sailor during an earlier trip to Grand Cayman and who had also chartered the Freedon. The former girlfriend said the man’s name was Philippe and that she had also dated him. He had told her he was involved in a large scale drug smuggling operation.

This finding led Paul to believe Florian Meyer-Bourch may also have been involved in transporting illegal narcotics, but no evidence was found to support the theory.

Was Florian A Drug-Runner?

In addition to drug smuggling, several other theories are offered regarding the disappearance of the Freedon. One is that the ship was hijacked by pirates who killed the men and kidnapped Lisa into the Caribbean sex trade. Another theory is that the freighter disappeared into the abyss of the “Bermuda Triangle.”

Most believe the Freedon and its crew lay deep in the Atlantic Ocean. Coast Guard officials say the Gulf Stream in the Florida Straits can cause the weather to change on a dime. Quick, turbulent storms lead to disasters and, just as quickly, erase any evidence of them. They believe such an occurrence was likely the unfortunate fate of the Freedon as neither the families of Lisa Bishop, Florian Meyer-Bourch, or those of the seven Haitian crew-mates have heard from their loved ones since the voyage.

Rumors, however, swirl that the Freedon later roamed the Atlantic waters under the name Freliant. Several reported sightings of the boat’s sailing under the new name have been reported over the years, but none could be confirmed.

Thirty-five years after setting sail, the Freedon has not returned to harbor. The freighter’s fate and that of its crew are perhaps hidden forever.

What is the Fate of the Freedon?

Lisa Bishop and Florian Meyer-Bourch are presumed lost at sea but are still officially listed as missing persons.

Lisa Lynn Bishop was five-feet-two-inches tall with brown eyes and had short blond hair, though it was naturally-brown. She would today be fifty-eight-years-old.

Florian Meyer-Bourch, AKA Florian Meyer-Borchert and David Florian, stood six-feet-two-inches tall and had brown shoulder-length hair. He would today be sixty-three-years-old.

I could not find any additional information on Philippe or the names of the Haitian crew members who also disappeared aboard the Freedon.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Lisa Bishop or Florian Meyer-Boruch, or if you believe you have seen a freighter sailing under the names of “Freedon” of “Freeliant,” please contact the United States Coast Guard.

Lisa and Florian Are Presumed, But Not Confirmed, Deceased

SOURCES:

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Miami Herald
• Miami New-Times
• Unsolved Mysteries