A judge on Tuesday scheduled a bond hearing in federal court for Lewis Bennett on Friday.
Bennett was arrested by the FBI Monday in West Palm Beach and is charged with transporting interstate commerce.
Bennett is accused of transporting thousands of dollars worth of silver coins he allegedly knew were stolen.
Bennett appeared in federal court in Key West on Tuesday morning in a blue and grey jail uniform.
Escorted by two U.S. marshals, Bennett lacked expression as he walked into the courtroom handcuffed to chains around his waist.
The only words he spoke were to the judge. In his British accent, he told her he would be able to afford his own attorney.
The FBI says he was transporting stolen coins the day his boat sank and his wife vanished in the Florida straits in May.
"Every day I have more and more questions, but I don't have answers to them," said Dayana, Isabella Hellmann's sister.
Dayana prefers to hide her physical identity because of the high profile case. After Bennett's arrest Monday, she expressed shock and grief over what has happened to her family.
"We wish we could have some answers and we wish we could know what happened," said Dayana.
The FBI has not released any details on its investigation into Hellmann's disappearance.
Bennett says he last saw Isabella at the helm of his boat keeping watch.
He says he felt the boat hit something and was jolted out of bed around 1 a.m.
When he looked for Isabella, she was gone.
The FBI says there were two backpacks and a suitcase in the life raft Bennett was rescued from.
In one backpack, the FBI found nine plastic tubes of silver coins reported stolen by Bennett in 2016 in St. Maarten on a boat he was a crew member for.
Dayana told me she has not heard from Bennett since he took his and Isabella's baby girl Emelia and left the country two weeks after Isabella's disappearance.
In previous Facebook posts, Bennett announced he and the baby were in the U.K. It is unclear what he was doing in West Palm Beach when he was arrested.
Dayana believes the baby may still be in the U.K. with Bennett's parents. "It's pretty sad because she is what we have left from Isabella and not knowing anything about her, it's pretty sad." added Dayana.
A federal judge has set a bond hearing for Bennett for Friday at 2 p.m. The state may ask the Judge to deny bond and argue that Bennett is a flight risk. Bennett is in the process of retaining a lawyer for the case.
