SUTTON — Residents of this tiny town along the Glenn Highway were shocked Monday to hear of the death of Daniel Dryden, a local resident who was killed in a machete attack on his sailboat in Guatemala.

Dryden’s wife, Nancy Dryden, 67, was seriously injured during the attack, which she told the Associated Press by phone Sunday came at the hands of machete-wielding robbers on a lake in northern Guatemala.

“It’s just heartbreak and shock is what it is,”  said longtime acquaintance Patricia Wade of Palmer about the sentiments she’s receiving as she corresponds with people in the area.

Courtesy photo/danieldryden.blogspot.com Sutton area residents Nancy and Daniel Dryden were attacked on their boat in Guatemala Saturday by men wielding machetes and demanding money. Daniel was killed in the assault and Nancy injured.

Wade said most people in the area knew the Drydens and the mood there Monday was somber.

Wade said she probably first met Daniel Perry Dryden in the 1970s, at around the time he and his wife moved to the area.

“I was remembering him today, the first time I ever saw him,” Wade said. “He’s a close neighbor to where I grew up where my mother lives. And I drove up to her house one day and there was somebody up on the roof helping to put a new roof up or patch up her roof. And it was him.”

That’s how she remembers Dryden — a friendly neighbor willing to lend a hand. He was also active in the community, though Wade said she wasn’t sure with which organizations or in what capacity.

“Whenever it seems like I was involved in anything up there so was he,” Wade said.

Dryden’s daughter and son-in-law work with Wade at the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, Wade said.

“They’re just wonderful people too,” Wade said. “They really care about their surroundings and their environment.”

In a telephone interview from her hospital bed, Nancy Dryden said her husband, 66, was killed Saturday by four men who boarded their boat while it was anchored in Lake Izabal and demanded money.

“They poked us and stabbed us with the machetes, and they were asking for money — specifically dollars,” Dryden said.

The thieves were apparently unhappy with the take, she said.

“We had a few quetzales [Guatemala’s currency], but we had no dollars with us on the boat,” Dryden recounted.

The couple, who are retired and live in the Sutton area, had bought the boat in February. They were equipping the vessel in preparation for a planned voyage out into the Caribbean and, eventually, to the U.S. East Coast.

Dryden said the four assailants boarded the vessel late Saturday. She believes they may have reached the boat by swimming from shore.

The long machetes the men brandished “seemed liked curved swords,” Dryden said.

“Nancy was held in a separate compartment as Dan grabbed his own machete and fought to his death,” a Dryden family Web site reports about the incident.

After assaulting the couple, the men demanded Dryden hand over the keys to the vessel, which has an auxiliary motor. When she didn’t — she was unable to tell whether they wanted the keys to the boat or a small dinghy the couple used to get to shore — the men left, also apparently by swimming.

Dryden struggled over to the boat’s radio and sent out a distress call, she said.

“I said, ‘We need help,” she recalled. “I said my husband was not moving.”

Guatemala City Assistant Police Commissioner Luis Say said the attack is being investigated.

Lake Izabal is located near the Caribbean coast and is popular with tourists for its jungle scenery and wildlife. The lake was also the scene of the kidnapping of four Belgian tourists in March. The tourists were briefly held hostage by protesting farmers at a lakeside community before being released. The farmers were demanding the release of a jailed leader of their organization.

The family Web site says friends the couple met at the harbor came to her aid. Dryden said she expected her children to arrive in Guatemala Monday and plans to be transferred to the United States for medical care.

A family Web site, danieldryden.blogspot.com, has been set up in Daniel Dryden’s memory. The Web site says Nancy Dryden is in stable condition and hopes to avoid a dangerous surgery.

The Web site points people who want to send prayers and sympathy for the family to dan.dryden.memorial@gmail.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.