When Karen Daniel of Los Angeles l and her film team suggested visiting the Beacon offices Sunday I imagined she hadn’t followed the forecasts of a possible snow storm.

I was wrong.

She was already in Rhode Island for a second time working on the story of Fernando Silva, known  locally as Captain Fredy.  This would be the third time a television production company had picked up on the story of a man who left his service station business and family to live out of his car and how he eventually found his love for boats, the sea and, most of all, peace.

 The first of the TV stories was done as an episode in the Investigation Discovery series, “See No Evil,” That crew worked out of a room in the Westin Hotel in Providence. They were in and out of Rhode Island in a couple of days.

Karen and Anna Cuellar are freelancers. They work for production companies. The first of their work on the Captain Fredy story was last May for an A&E series, “Tell Me How I Died” that will be aired this March.  This time they are working on one of a series of eight episodes to be aired by the network Oxygen.

We planned to meet at the Beacon office at 8 a.m. whether we got clobbered by snow or it was rain and mush. It was mostly rain at 8.

When I pulled into the parking lot the slush was plowed and the occupants of three vehicles piled out as soon as they spotted me. They carried tripods, cameras, computers and lighting backdrops.

I promised coffee, so I went to work setting that up. They brought donuts. I pointed out where to find the restrooms, but other than that the camera and sound crew had already cased the joint. They were calculating camera angles, lighting and shutting off the heat to avoid the interruption of blowers kicking on in the midst of a shoot.

When I met Karen for the earlier production, I brought her to our home to show her where Fredy had anchored his boat. Karen was anxious to give a personal picture of Fredy in addition to telling the story of how he ended up dead and police tracked down the two men who killed him.

Those who follow this column know I’ve written more than one story about Fredy starting when I found him anchored front of the house on a June morning. Fredy told me he had sailed solo from Rhode Island to the Florida Keys in a 20-foot sailboat without having had any prior boating experience.

The adventure, which Fredy expounded on over a cup of coffee and an English muffin while filling water jugs at the house, was remarkable.  Fredy left his first boat in Florida and returned to Rhode Island by bus, where he found an old and beaten up sailboat – the one I found him on. Usually in May or June he would reappear to pick up a mooring in front of the house. This went on for about eight years. Often, he’d leave a bike in the yard that he’d pedal to the convenience store on West Shore Road to buy a few supplies and play Keno. Fredy wasn’t interested in politics or the news. We talked about the weather, fishing and how wonderful it was to be on the bay. We became friends. He didn’t need to announce his arrival, he knew where to find the hose to get water or the outlet to charge his cell phone.  On occasion, when I was out paddle boarding or rowing, he’d invite me aboard to watch the Red Sox on a hand-held TV plugged into a 12-vote battery that was charged by a solar panel. On other occasions, he helped with yard work and even painting the exterior of the house. He offered to do it for nothing, but was happy to make a few bucks when I insisted.

Karen wanted to hear those details and how I came to know of his military service, love for this country, and of his family. She also wanted to get my reaction when I heard on Aug. 15, 2015 that a badly decomposed body had been found in a boat moored in Warwick Cove. Did I think it could be Fredy?  When I learned the boat was a yellow 26 foot Columbia, I was sure it was Fredy’s and since I hadn’t seen him in about three weeks I feared the body could be his. He had told me he would be going to Warwick Cove and he had a lead to an engine.

The pieces fit, but Karen looked to go deeper. What did I think happened? Did I think he could have died of natural causes; had there been an accident or was there fowl play?  How did I feel knowing Fredy wouldn’t be returning summer after summer?

News reporters don’t usually display personal emotions covering a story and it’s not their place to jump to conclusions. In retrospect, I looked for the story to play out.

In short, since you will learn the details when these series air if you don’t know already, some great Warwick Police detective work led to the identification of Fredy’s body and then placing Richard Baribault and Troy Gunderway on Fredy’s boat, the Star Capella, on Aug. 1, the night of his death.

All of it had to do with Fredy’s quest to find a reliable outboard and Baribault and Gunderway ‘s   knowledge he had won some money at Keno. Baribault and Gunderway figured they had found a mark to pick up some “beer money.”.

The “See no Evil” portrayal focused on how police cracked the case, with little about Fredy and his life. This time, as they did for the A&E production, Karen and Anna talked to family. Fredy’s sister, Dolly, was interviewed on Tuesday before the crew split up to go their separate ways.

I wonder how the two shows will differ and how they will portray a man who shied from notoriety and found solace on a boat.

“You’re not gonna write a story about this?” he would ask after telling me of his adventures. Had he forgotten, I report stories? I told him people dreamed of his free-living and they would be interested, if not envious.

I trust Karen and Anna can tell the story of a man who, like all of us, had his troubled times, a man who discovered the lure of the sea and most of all made peace with himself.