A high-profile shooting death on the Caribbean island of Canouan, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has led to two arrests and forced investigators to expand a long-running probe into a mysterious missing plane case that has drawn regional security attention.\n\nHomicide investigators confirmed Wednesday night that 37-year-old Daniel Vettrino, a Scottish national working as technical services manager at the luxury Canouan Estate Resort & Villas, was fatally shot. Local authorities found Vettrino with multiple gunshot wounds in the Jim Hill area of Canouan around midnight, and a responding doctor pronounced him dead at the scene. Two local Vincentian men have been taken into custody in connection with the killing, though law enforcement has so far declined to release any official comment on motive or details of the case, per information obtained by iWitness News from reliable sources.\n\nWhat has made the case particularly notable is its emerging connection to the unexplained disappearance of a twin-engine light aircraft near Canouan earlier this month. Well-placed insider sources confirm that Vettrino previously resided in Colombia, matching the nationality of the two pilots on board the missing Dominican Republic-registered Beechcraft Baron B58T, registration number HI1145. Public flight tracking data corroborates that the aircraft completed at least one round trip between Canouan and Argyle International Airport (AIA) on June 10, just two days before it vanished while en route to ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago. The plane first flew from Canouan to AIA on June 12 before departing for its planned destination at 11:52 a.m. local time, with a scheduled flight time of 65 minutes.\n\nA statement from St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Civil Aviation Department explained that the aircraft maintained routine radio communication with AIA air traffic control until it reached a point 40 nautical miles south of the airport — the southern boundary of the country’s controlled airspace — where communication handover was completed. After the transfer, all radio contact was lost, and the plane never arrived at its destination. Search and rescue operations were launched immediately, and remained active as the investigation unfolded.\n\nIn a surprising public update, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Minister of National Security St. Clair Leacock confirmed earlier that the missing aircraft has actually been located, and that the two Colombian pilots on board survived the incident. However, Leacock has declined to release any additional details, framing the case as an extraordinarily sensitive security matter that requires strict limits on public disclosure. “The public is understandably anxious for information, but we have to balance the public’s right to know with the needs of ongoing operational security,” Leacock stated, adding that professional responsibilities prevent him from sharing more details at this time.\n\nVettrino’s killing marks the 20th homicide recorded in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2026, according to official police statistics. That number represents a noticeable increase from the 15 homicides recorded by the same point in 2025. It was also the second fatal killing in the country over a 48-hour period: just one day before Vettrino’s shooting, another man was killed in Lowmans Hill on the main island of St. Vincent. Authorities say that victim is a St. Lucian national, but have not yet confirmed his full identity.\n\nThis June 2026 missing plane incident is not an isolated case in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and marks the second unexplained aircraft disappearance linked to Canouan since 2023. In December 2023, a twin-engine Gulfstream N337LR carrying three passengers and one pilot departed Canouan for what was billed as a two-hour sightseeing excursion. The pilot made his final radio contact with the Canouan control tower just six minutes after takeoff, after which all contact was lost. Months later, the aircraft was located intact in Africa. Then-prime minister and national security minister Ralph Gonsalves noted at the time that data from regional and international security agencies indicated the plane’s transponder had been intentionally turned off, a common red flag for illicit air activity. Gonsalves added that local authorities had coordinated with two relevant Latin American nations to investigate the 2023 incident.\n\nJust one month before that 2023 disappearance, Vincentian security forces intercepted and searched a separate Gulfstream III jet, registration N674JM, after it arrived in Canouan from the Dominican Republic based on specific intelligence, Gonsalves confirmed at the time. “We received intelligence that the plane was heading to Argyle International Airport, but that information turned out to be incorrect. Once we confirmed it was bound for Canouan, we mobilized security forces. We were advised that two or three people on board had reservations to stay at the Soho House resort here,” Gonsalves told local radio in 2023. He added that no contraband or prohibited items were found on board the jet after a full search.
Two Vincies in custody after Scottish man killed in Canouan
