A US Navy warship shadowing the seized American yacht responded when the crew heard shots fired, they found the four hostages killed by captors.
The yacht was hijacked February 18 off the coast of Oman by Somali pirates, they then steered the vessel towards the Somali coast.Upon hearing gunfire on-board, the naval ship responded, finding the Americans dead, along with some of the pirates. Many of the remaining pirates were captured. The Americans were identified as Scott Adam and his wife, Jean, of Marina del Rey, Californiia and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle. The four were close friends and worked together, having founded a film and theology institute. Johnson routinely lived on the yacht, sailing to remote regions of the world to distribute Bibles while documenting their missionary work on film. They were heading to Somali to continue their work.