North Carolina Physical Therapist Vanishes on Grenada Beach, Husband Flies to Island to Join Search

Elizabeth "Liz" Waddell, a 44-year-old physical therapist from Cary, North Carolina, was last seen around 8 p.m. Wednesday on Grand Anse Beach in St. George's, Grenada, according to the Royal Grenada Police Force. Grand Anse is a well-known white sand beach neighborhood in the island's capital, popular with tourists.

Police launched a missing persons search and issued a specific appeal Thursday to fishermen, boat operators and residents along Grenada's southern coastline to be on the lookout and report any sightings. The police description listed her as having short blonde hair and a medium build, though the Post noted a discrepancy: the official release listed her height as 5-foot-5, while WTVD reported she is closer to 5 feet tall. The missing persons notice photo showed her with short pink hair, a detail that doesn't match the "blonde" description in the same release. Those inconsistencies could complicate identification efforts.

Her husband, Cailen Waddell, an operations manager for the Cary, North Carolina, department of parks, recreation, and cultural resources, posted a public plea on Facebook Friday morning asking friends with connections to Grenada to share the missing persons information with contacts on the island. "My wife Liz is missing in Grenada," he wrote, adding that he was traveling to Grenada to join the search himself. "I expect nothing less than Liz's safe return so please sent your love, light, thoughts, and prayers our way."

Waddell holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from UNC Chapel Hill and runs Art of Movement Physical Therapy in Cary, where she built a practice around a decade of clinical experience and more than two decades in fitness and dance instruction. Her professional bio describes an active lifestyle that includes pole dancing, CrossFit, hiking and traveling. Her Facebook page shows a history of international travel with her husband and their adopted adult daughter, Suwan, including trips to Mexico and Thailand.

Her most recent public post, dated May 22, described ongoing health struggles. She wrote that she was being treated for long-COVID and post-viral illness alongside Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which she said had a root cause tied to endometriosis and what she called "perimenopause insanity." No source has connected that health update to her disappearance in Grenada, and nothing in the police statements or her husband's public posts suggests foul play, an accident or a medical emergency as the cause.

Grenada is a roughly 133-square-mile island nation in the southeastern Caribbean, and Grand Anse's beachfront runs along a stretch of coastline with hotels, restaurants and easy water access, which is why police are focusing outreach on people who work the water: fishermen and boat operators who might have seen someone matching her description at night or in the following days.

No timeline for a resolution has been provided by Grenadian authorities, and no additional details on search methods, whether the Royal Grenada Police Force has coordinated with the U.S. Embassy, or whether any persons of interest have been identified, have been made public as of this writing. The case remains an active missing persons investigation, not a criminal one, based on the information police have released so far.

Key questions remain unanswered: whether Cailen Waddell's arrival on the island produces new leads, whether Grenadian police expand the search area beyond the southern coastline, and whether the U.S. State Department gets involved given that Waddell is an American citizen missing on foreign soil.