Posted on 06/29/2005 1:58:53 PM PDT by Rippersnapper
GALVESTON - A Houston-area woman reported missing from a Carnival cruise ship was not the victim of foul play or an accidental fall, Houston FBI agents determined Sunday after interviewing her husband and other passengers.
"We had agents on the ship and concluded there was no foul play involved," said Agent Luz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the FBI. "I can't really go into detail out of respect for the family, but our feeling is that it was not an accident."
Family members last saw Vonnie Ales, 40, of Simonton, about 6:45 a.m. Friday when she left their cabin, after the ship Elation had left Belize and was steaming toward its home port in Galveston, Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said.
A passenger saw her on an upper deck about 7:15 a.m. as the ship passed about 30 miles south of the Mexican island of Cozumel, de la Cruz said. The seven-day voyage included stops in Mexico and Belize.
Passengers disembarking Sunday from the Elation at Galveston said they first learned that Ales was missing Friday morning when an announcement was made on the ship's public address system asking her to phone or go to the purser's office.
A photo of Ales, who passengers said was traveling with her husband and two teenage children, was broadcast on the ship's televisions.
"We all looked," said John Besiso, 35, of Katy. His wife, Lisa, 35, said, "Everybody was upset and concerned."
Later the captain announced that he feared Ales was overboard and that he was turning the ship around to return to the area where she was last seen, passengers said.
"He was really frantic," said passenger Pam Gaspard, 37, of Orange. She said the ship turned around about noon. About 1 p.m., passengers were asked to go to the rail and look for Ales, Gaspard said.
She was not found, so the ship began to retrace its course toward Cozumel, she said.
Passenger Jeff Boren, 42, of Belton, said the Elation traveled for about six hours before arriving in the area where Ales was last seen on the upper deck.
Boren and other passengers said they saw two Mexican naval or coast guard vessels and a third, private ship that appeared to be a large freighter steaming in a search pattern.
Gaspard said there was little danger of accidentally falling overboard, noting that the railing is chest high.
They don't know that she went overboard either. :)
Suicide is a truly selfish act.If she had any thought for the family it was probably like "this will show them"
Yes, but the "this will show them" types all leave notes.
Yeah, maybe she's still living in the walls of the boat, like "Bad Ronald", watching the other passengers through peep holes.
Is that what you think happened to Amy Bradley, too? She was found missing from a moving ship, too.
Yes, definitely. They both live inside the walls of their respective ships spying on the other passengers.
Yeah, but Bradley was last seen just BEFORE the ship docked in a port of call.
I'm more interested in the reported sighting of her in a brothel by a US Naval officer. Hard to believe he would make that one up.
hello there.
Hi, Drew, I guess Daniel is your dad and Bonnie is your sister, funny, I don’t see you listed as a family member Drew?
This might interest you.
Bump to see how far this one goes.
I was too slow again
I wonder.............possible guilt complex??????
Who knows. Sad story but written strangely
You did read post 29 didn’t you?
Yes I read it but it seemed contrived rather than real to me.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt her son would say she had been in the funny farm.
And the poster signed up today. Probably a DU’er
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