NZ connection in search for vanished basketball star

By ALISON HORWOOD

Before he vanished without trace, former NBA basketball player Bison Dele sailed around New Zealand for four months, fulfilling his childhood dream of spending a year sailing in the South Pacific.

The FBI has launched a huge hunt after Dele, his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, and their French skipper, Bertrand Saldo, disappeared from Dele's 16.7m (55ft) catamaran, the Hakuna Matata, in Tahiti more than two months ago.

The yacht was found last week in Tahiti's eastern port of Taravao, scrubbed inside, repainted and renamed Aria Bella.

New Zealand police revealed yesterday that they had contacted the FBI to help in the international murder investigation.

The focus would be on the time the yacht spent in Auckland, said police spokesman Jon Neilson.

Investigators, armed with international arrest warrants, have concentrated on Dele's brother, Miles Dabord, also known as Kevin Williams, who accompanied the couple on the trip.

Dabord was found comatose at Tijuana, on the US-Mexico border, and remains in intensive care in a San Diego area hospital.

He is the only one of the four who has appeared since the group vanished on July 8.

Dabord paid for a rental car with his brother's credit card and flew out of Tahiti on July 20. On September 5, the 35-year-old tried to use Dele's chequebook to buy $150,000 of gold coins in Phoenix, Arizona.

The FBI revealed yesterday it had identified Dabord on Thursday morning but would not give further details or say whether he tried to kill himself.

The family of Ms Karlan, 30, told the Herald that since 33-year-old Dele was a child he had dreamed of buying a yacht and sailing the Pacific.

Dele, who is 2.1m (6ft 11in), won a NBA championship with Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in 1997, then swapped teams to join the Detroit Pistons before retiring in 1999.

He was then known as Brian Williams, but changed his name to acknowledge his American Indian roots. His father was a member of legendary soul group The Platters.

Ms Karlan's father, Stuart Karlan, said that when Dele was in Detroit he had become so depressed with the winter that he installed a wall-to-wall tropical fish tank in his apartment. He would don a facemask and snorkel, dip his head in and pretend he was in the South Pacific.

Dele's yacht arrived at Opua in the Bay of Islands on January 26 this year. Dele, Dabord, Ms Karlan and three crew members were on board.

After spending time in the Bay of Islands, the Hakuna Matata was moored for six weeks at Westhaven Marina before leaving for Tahiti on May 29.

Despite his wealth (when he announced his retirement he was offered US$50 million to finish the season for the Pistons) and physical stature, Dele appears to have been fairly low-key in New Zealand.

While in the Bay of Islands, he and Ms Karlan kept to themselves, preferring to lounge on the boat and snorkel rather than live the high life. He is not remembered at any of the yacht clubs or bars spoken to by the Herald, but one shopkeeper at Opua remembered him driving an old van and shopping for provisions.

In Auckland, Dele and Ms Karlan spent their days relaxing and working out at an inner-city gym. None of the establishments at the Viaduct usually frequented by moneyed international yachties remember him.

Overseas press reports say that despite his wealth Dele did not like to be ostentatious, but he was known for giving $100,000 cash gifts to his friends.

Mr Karlan said his daughter had known Dele for a while, but they became romantically involved only a few months before they left. In January, Ms Karlan bade her family in Colorado goodbye and flew to Australia to meet Dele to begin the trip. She was a real estate agent in New York, but her work had largely dried up after September 11.

"I had only met him [Dele] once," Mr Karlan said. "But if you knew Serena, you just knew to trust her judgment. She was a wonderful woman, pure of spirit, guileless, with her feet on the ground and her heart as open as the sky."

During her time in New Zealand, Ms Karlan kept in weekly email contact with her family. The couple loved the beaches and lifestyle, saying the scenery reminded them of The Lord of the Rings.

Their families have been in contact with yacht clubs in New Zealand to try to retrace their steps. Mr Karlan said Dabord had joined the couple unexpectedly in Australia. He had fallen out with Dele in the past, but was apparently intent on patching things up.

Mr Karlan said he was praying to see his daughter again but was realistic about the fact the three may have met violence.

"It is very hard for me to say this is final. Until there is solid evidence, I will hope to see her again."